CINCINNATI
— Former Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price will return to baseball as the pitching coach for Team USA, which starts the qualifying process for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics in November. Baseball will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
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The Reds fired Price on April 19, 2018. His final record in five seasons was 279-387. The Reds never had a winning record in his tenure, finishing 76-86 in his first season and then 64-98 in 2015, 68-94 in 2016 and 68-94 in 2017.
Price, 55, replaced Dusty Baker after the Reds won the wild card in 2013. Price served as Reds pitching coach from 2010-13.
Price will be on a Team USA staff that includes manager Joe Girardi, bench coach Scott Brosius, bullpen coach Roly de Armas, hitting coach Phil Plantier, third base coach Willie Randolph and first base coach Ernie Young.
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The group will coach Team USA in the 2019 World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12. The team will play the Netherlands in the opening game Nov. 2 in Guadalajara, Mexico. It then plays Mexico, which is managed by former Reds infielder Juan Castro, on Nov. 3 and the Dominican Republic on Nov. 4.
According to USA Baseball, “The top two teams from each group will advance to the six-team Super Round in Japan, which will be hosted by Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) at Chiba’s ZOZO Marine Stadium and the Tokyo Dome. The top finisher from both the Americas territory and Asia/Oceania territory (excluding Japan) will automatically qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, joining host-country Japan in the six-team Olympic tournament.”
