Joe Morgan Returns to Reds as Advisor, Dusty Baker Better Watch His Back

Current ESPN broadcaster and former member of The Big Red Machine, Joe Morgan, has accepted a new position and will return to Cincinnati as a Special Advisor to Baseball Operations.

Hmm…this sounds eerily familiar.  If I were Dusty Baker it would make me nervous as hell.

In January of 2008, current Reds GM Walt Jocketty was hired by owner Bob Castellini to take on the position of Special Advisor of the Cincinnati Reds — a title which seemed a bit skeptical at the time seeing as how Jocketty was the former GM of the St. Louis Cardinals.

But just a few months later, Jocketty replaced then GM Wayne Krivsky, and the Reds have been in rebuilding mode ever since.

And once again, I do not buy the “Special Advisor” role given to Morgan.

You would think this would almost certainly be a conflict of interest for Morgan, considering he is doing Sunday Night Baseball for ESPN.  Some people have even said that Aaron Boone may be assuming Morgan’s roles at ESPN by the end of the year.

Dusty Baker has to see Joe Morgan’s hiring as a threat to his job. There have long been talks that Joe Morgan would make a terrific baseball manager, and what better place to make his debut then with the team he led to back-to-back World Series Championships?