Julio César Morillo is one of the new promises that the Cincinnati Reds have to lead the learning and development process of the young players who arrive at their affiliates. After definitively hanging up his chest and receiver’s mask in 2016 and starting a new career as a coach in the diamonds, the management of the red machinery appointed him to be the new manager of his team in the Arizona Rookie League, where he will begin directing from April 1.
From a very young age, when he exhibited a powerful fastball and one of the most polite gloves at shortstop for his auroral team in Mérida, Morillo accumulated wisdom about the secrets of the game, which now, at 29 years of age, he will have to instill in the new litter of players who aspire to consecrate themselves in the Major Leagues with one of the most traditional teams in the Major Leagues.
“It is a great commitment to lead a Cincinnati Reds affiliate team, the great red machine, which had so many years of glory and it has been a while without us being able to taste glory again. It is an honor and a privilege to belong to the Cincinnati Reds,” he says about the team that signed him at age 15, when his powerful arm and solid defense as a shortstop and mask convinced the scouts to give him a chance to join the team. .
Since then, he established a great respect and an affinity with the organization that reached out to him again, after his decision to retire as a baseball player. “I have a great loyalty for the Reds and I will continue to contribute to this institution in the minor leagues, developing the players in a proper way.”
On April 1, when he officially begins his new work in the cave and on the field of play, Morillo already has in mind the speech with which he will receive his troop in Arizona. «The first day as manager I am going to tell them to be authentic, to be themselves; displaying the skill and ability to play baseball; that they be leaders by example; and that they do the work with intensity for the benefit of themselves and the team».
magic of teaching
He has also well learned the technical work that he must put into practice so that the payroll in his charge polishes his faculties. “Game preparation is essential. Players must manage all the necessary information about the rivals they will face. They have the talent, but they are raw and that is where the magic comes from us to perfect their tools: teach them how infielders should move their feet, how they should pet receivers or throw well to the bases, to name a few examples.
It also highlights the importance of establishing a sincere connection with the players. “Coaches and managers must understand the particular situations that players go through. If you connect with the player and show him that you respect him and care about him, they will always get where you are.
To face his new challenge in the lime stripes, the ex-careta of Navegantes de Magallanes in the Parallel League knows that he must quickly change the chip of the player and get into the new skin of a trainer. “The most difficult thing when you start as a manager is to stop seeing the player you were in the players, because each of the players has skills, tools, a different personality and they have a different way of being managed,” he analyzes.
washington passion
His managerial role model is Ron Washington, the current third base coach for the World Series champion Atlanta Braves and a former manager for the Texas Rangers whom he led to the October Classic in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. «I liked the passion and intensity with which he lived each inning and every good thing his players did, showing his support. I would like to be like him, because the players responded to him by playing hard.
Morillo looks at himself in the mirror of two other managers who have influenced his career. Dusty Baker was a manager in Cincinnati, when he played in the minors and admires the current driver of the Houston Astros’ “great ability to connect with the players.”
But the driver he knows best and with whom he has established the closest relationship is David Bell, the Reds driver, from whom he has learned his enormous ability to transmit instructions. «He has a very elegant way of communicating with the players, and getting his message across in a very clear way; He knows how to gain the trust of the coaching staff who, in the end, are the ones who spend the most time with the players.
Lion heart
Although he is on the verge of a new beginning in his career in the Major League system with Cincinnati, Morillo amasses big plans for his managerial career that he projects in stages. «The first thing is to learn, because the game evolves more every day, we have to evolve with it so as not to be left behind and the players can benefit from one. I don’t know if it will happen, but directing in a World Series would be one of the many blessings that God would give me.
And in the Venezuelan Baseball League he treasures another great dream. “I have always been a fan of the Leones del Caracas. I would have liked to play with them, it didn’t happen, but who takes away that in the future I can be the manager of the team that I carry in my heart»-
