Cincinnati Reds add J.R. House as 3rd-base and catching coach on David Bell's staff

Throughout the last month, the Reds have focused on filling David Bell’s first coaching staff with the team and they recently added their third coach.

The Reds hired J.R. House to be their third base and catching coach next season, a source confirmed. House spent last season as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor league field coordinator, his first year in that role.

House was in the D-Backs’ organization for seven years. Pitching coach Derek Johnson and hitting coach Turner Ward were named as members of Bell’s coaching staff at the beginning of November. The Reds haven't publicly announced House's hire.

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Billy Hatcher served as the Reds’ third-base coach for the last three seasons and Mike Stefanski was the Major League catching coach since the 2014 season. It’s unclear if either coach will return, but Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams said on WLW’s “Hot Stove League” that the club was talking to only one or two coaches from last year's coaching staff about roles in the organization.

“I think it’s important for David to have a bit of a runway to work with to shape his message through his coaches,” Williams said at the GM Meetings earlier this month. “That’s important. We’re not saying there couldn’t be holdovers, but really it’s important to give him a lot of spots and to give us a lot of spots to bring in some new voices to support the direction that we want to go moving forward.”

Before becoming a field coordinator, House was a minor league manager in the Diamondbacks’ organization from 2014-17 and a minor league hitting coach from 2012-13. He was the California League’s Manager of the Year in 2015. As a player, a fifth-round pick in the 1999 MLB Draft, he appeared in 32 Major League games.

Bell’s brother, Mike, is the Diamondbacks’ farm director.

Earlier this week, Williams said the Reds hoped to complete their coaching staff by the end of November.