Did Cincinnati Reds fire Dusty Baker because he was too nice to his players?

Although the Cincinnati Reds have had no trouble getting to the postseason in recent years, they’ve ran into problems once there.

The Reds have made the playoffs three out of the past four years, all of them under former skipper Dusty Baker though never advanced past the first round despite consistently winning over 90 games in every season (at least recently).

It’s easy to suggest to Reds fired Baker over those failures, though, pitcher Mike Leake seemed to think it might have been Baker’s personality more than the poor playoff results.

Leake, in an interview with ESPN 1530 suggested that Baker was far too kind to his players, always wanting to be liked.

"“No disrespect to Dusty, but he’s such a player’s manager that it’s tough for him to be commanding at times because he wants to be so liked by everybody,” the 25-year-old explained. ”Price is the same way. He wants to be liked, but on the other hand he’s not afraid to tell you what he needs to tell you. He can do that for us.”"

While that seems like a bit of an odd statement, it’s actually something we’ve seen before – hell – even with Baker when he was let go by the San Francisco Giants.

It’s likely the Reds let Baker go do the continued postseason failures, though, it’s completely possible Leake’s suggestion did play a role in the Reds’ decision.