CINCINNATI — Mike Napoli still has a beard, but it’s neater now, regularly manicured. And it has specks of gray.
Napoli, 44, is an assistant bench coach under Reds manager Terry Francona and in his second act in professional baseball aspires to be a manager — a continuation, he said, of what he long has felt responsible for doing, taking younger players under his tutelage to teach them the ways of the majors.
Among the wisdom Napoli sometimes shares: Excellence in the regular season is well and good, but it isn’t everything.
“If you want to be famous in this game,” Napoli said, “you have to do it in the postseason.”
He learned that lesson during early October appearances with the Angels, when veterans such as John Lackey helped mold his mind-set. It served him well in 2013, when he was a slugger for the World Series-winning Red Sox, Napoli’s only ring from three trips to the Fall Classic. And he paid it forward with the 2016 Indians, giving the advice to Francisco Lindor and others when they went all the way to Game 7 of the World Series against the Cubs.
“I tried to bring all the young kids in,” he said. “I would have them over after the game and stuff, go out with them, and just try to show them the way.”
That was the year Napoli grew close with Francona, a pair of Boston baseball icons — in their own ways — who overlapped only during that year with Cleveland. The experience near the end of Napoli’s playing career helped set him down this path to Cincinnati.
“It’s probably the best thing ever,” Napoli said of working with Francona. “[In 2016] I was in his office every day. I played cribbage with him … That’s where I got to know him as a person, not just baseball stuff. You can imagine all the stories he has from his days in baseball, just fun to listen to, and off-the-field stuff. He’s just a genuine human being who cares and is nice to be around. He gives off this good energy that makes you feel comfortable and want to work for him. So it’s been a privilege to watch him on a daily basis now, being a bench coach for him. He’s one of the best I’ve been around.”
In his second year on the Reds’ staff (after four years with the Cubs and former Red Sox teammate David Ross), Napoli hopes these Francona years will help get him into the big chair himself.
“It’s just something I’d like to do: lead,” Napoli said. “Lead a group of men through this long grind of all the ups and downs, keeping everyone level headed and playing the game the right way.”
In case you were wondering: Yes, every once in a while, people still ask him about his post-championship shirtless celebration through the streets of Boston in 2013. Once in a while, he said, one of his players will come across a photo of the revelry and inquire.
“It was such a crazy year for me … I just let loose,” Napoli said. “And it was definitely a good time. But I tell stories to the guys in here, about the whole thing — the team, the celebration, what it’s like, the champagne and stuff … It’s probably one of the most special groups I’ve been a part of.”
Thinking game
Another piece of Alex Cora’s strategy in the outfield/DH rotation: He put Roman Anthony at DH and Masataka Yoshida in left field Sunday so that if he deployed his late-game defense, with Ceddanne Rafaela in center and Jarren Duran sliding over to left, Anthony’s bat would remain in the game. That alignment wound up not coming to fruition … Yoshida’s first three plate appearances of the season: 13 pitches, 12 balls, three walks, no swings. He took his first swing on the 16th pitch he saw … Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford both will throw four innings in a controlled setting in Fort Myers, Fla., on Monday, Cora said. Neither is starting a formal minor league rehab assignment yet … Red Sox principal owner (and Globe owner) John Henry attended the Sox’ 3-2 loss to the Reds on Sunday.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.