Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams chatted over a few elements of the club’s trade deadline approach with C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (subscription link). Of particular note, he left no doubt of the organization’s intention to seek roster improvements over the next few weeks.
“We’re going to look around to see what we can do to make us better, which would put us in the buyer category,” says Williams. “We feel like we’re in the thick of the race so we think it’s important to see what we can do to improve the club,” he went on to explain.
The Reds have been much better since a terrible start to the season. But they don’t look much like a typical contender at 41-46. Fortunately, they’re far from buried due to the failure of any single NL Central rival to pull away from the pack. Entering play today, just 4.5 games separated the cellar-dwelling Cincinnati club from the pace-setting Cubs. (The second-place team in the NL West faces three times the deficit.)
It’s sensible for the Reds to continue pressing under the circumstances. They parted with some prospect capital for near-term improvements over the winter. While everything hasn’t gone according to plan, the club has little reason to pull out of the race now with a sell-off that likely wouldn’t net all that much future value.
That’s not to say that the Cincinnati front office intends an all-in approach. Williams says the club won’t “focus exclusively on this year, but we will be looking to see if we find deals that make us better.” With a determination to improve the club’s outlook now and in the near future, it seems that Williams and his staff will be most intrigued by controllable targets. (That said, he did not rule out entirely the possibility of limited rental acquisition efforts.)
If the Reds are in it to win it, then it seems the NL Central will have five buy-side clubs. The Pirates could yet pivot, or at least consider deals that improve their future outlook without stripping too much immediate talent from the roster. But they won’t be true sellers if they stay within a few games of the pace. A rapid turn from the Cincinnati org or one of its competitors could yet change the math, but it appears likeliest that the full pack will remain in the chase.
It is fascinating to consider the ways in which this dynamic will shape the market. For one thing, most if not all of the potential rental targets on these rosters won’t be put up for sale. Even if most of the teams only operate as limited buyers, all will presumably be looking into adding assets. That’ll skew the overall market development quite a bit — particularly if the NL Central teams engage in any amount of direct transactional competition or hot stove one-upmanship with their inter-division competitors.
It would be silly for the Reds to give up future valuable assets right now. If they can buy without giving up impact prospects, by all means go ahead.
Would they like to have homer Bailey back?
No
Lol
I guarantee the reds want sign anything that will cost any top prospect or even top ten most likely
Their Top 5 is probably off-limits, but for the right piece, I’d make anybody else available.
There is one caveat, though. Jonathan India is almost ready, but the Reds have nowhere to put him. He’s a nice prospect, but has limited power. He’s solidly the Reds #3 prospect, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they included him in a deal.
I’ve always wondered what inspires someone to use a first initial instead of their first name.
Usually a first name like Clarence
And Clarence parents have a real good marriage
Cause there ain’t no such thing as half way crooks
Nah
Listen…All they need to do is call up…Johnathan India, Hunter Greene, Nick Senzel, That stud pitcher they got early this draft, and Taylor Tramell.
World Series Champs
Senzel already up so it’s a start
Hunter Greene is terrible and injured
I can’t believe his parents named him “Hunter”. What are his siblings names? Pine, Paris, Lincoln, and Forest?
Terrible? Right…..
Is this the same hunter Greene I saw
Ummm Senzel has already been up with the club for awhile and he’s just alright in his first year. Not the monster they claimed as of yet anyways.
Has there been a team that has tried to be competitive less in recent memory than the Reds? I honestly can’t think of any moves they made to make their ballclub better in the last ~10 years or so. Maybe the occasional draft pick or international signing but everyone hits on one or two of those eventually.
Marlins tried to be competitive and sign people but they haven’t been competitive in recent memory either.
You do realize the Reds have won the division twice in the last ten years, right?
Hmm and I see myself as president of the world. We can all say silly things
If this team trade future assets for this year they’re run by even stupider people than I originally thought. If this team was rebuilt to do this and they sold that to their fans it’s disgusting. Save your prospects, be decent this year, and when you hit your championship window spend like a a big market team to seal it. This is the 5th best team in this division and front office people who don’t realize what they are and what they’re not should be fired immediately. There are only two types of successful seasons. One is a season when you win a championship. The other is a building session which immediately leads to win a championship. There’s nothing else. Every other type of season is a failure. Recognize your window and exercising patience until you get there is the most important trait of a front office, and those who cannot are unemployable.
It seems weird to spend the offseason going for multiple players on one year deals then spend prospect capital to add for a playoff run.
I don’t share your vision, Cincy.
On a side note watching Yankees broadcast. Memo to the guys on Yes; I don’t care about your reminiscing on past tv promos. No offence guys. Figured New York could find better talent in the booth.
I could see Cincy trying the Ol’ Buy And Sell method and unloading pieces like Puig (Cleveland?) while grabbing a controllable piece that helps now and tomorrow. And maybe seeing what India is worth…
God the Reds are stupid. Either that or they are just lying.
I see myself as a well hung adult movie star, but sometimes we see ourselves as things we aren’t.
I’m sooo glad we cleared that up
Dick Williams: ‘We should be buyers.’
David Hernandez: ‘Hold my Beer.’
He needs DFA’d fast. Catch a ride home from Colorado fast. Tired of watching him and Peralta this year. This team needs to sell a few pieces and keep stocking.
Amen. Peralta has been awful especially in the field. None of them can hit except Suarez and Iglesias. Really disappointing to watch votto, winker, Barnhart, puig, Dietrich be so bad at the plate.
Really….Puig has 21 home runs and 55 RBI and Dietrich has19 HR and 43 RBI. I agree Barnhart, Votto, and Winker to some degree have been disappointing, but this team has a + 34 run differential. They need consistent offense and some BP help and they will stay in the thick of things until the end.
Hope the Reds don’t go all out and acquire rentals. Not a smart move IMHO, even if said moves might add a few wins to this year’s total.
The way things shape up this year, unless the Reds can leap over four teams and win the NL Central (Doubtful, wouldn’t you agree?), at best they are fighting for a highly competitive wild-card slot with multiple teams. Even if they get there and win the one-and-done wild-card game, what does it get them? A five game series vs. the powerful Dodgers, that’s what.
Looking at things in that light, it doesn’t compute that the Reds should part with any of their top tier prospects if a wild-card berth is the prize. Can’t see any current wild-card contender bumping off the Dodgers. Not with that pitching staff the Dodgers have.
Still, the fact that we’re 90 games into the season and Reds fans are talking playoffs for the first time in years, is a positive. Frankly, if someone told me back in March the Reds would be playing this well after their early season struggles, I would have taken it.