Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams has made it known that the club’s front office is entering the offseason focused on building a playoff-caliber team for 2020. The Reds have failed in that regard six straight times, but the team aims to bolster its playoff chances for next season by upping its payroll. Williams explained the Reds’ approach to the upcoming offseason in an expansive Q&A with C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (subscription required). It’s worth reading in full, but we’ll touch on a few of the highlights here.
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Cincinnati made almost all of its notable additions on the trade market last winter, picking up several household names (including right-hander Sonny Gray, who was superb this season). That continued into the summer with their acquisition of righty Trevor Bauer, who will join Gray, Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani as locks for next year’s rotation. The Reds remain open to bettering their roster via trades now, but it seems an ideal scenario for Williams would be for him and general manager Nick Krall to make most of their hay in free agency.
Williams told Rosecrans he expects Cincy will “be aggressive in trying to get some guys in free agency.” That’s a drastic change from last offseason, when the Reds’ lone guaranteed contract went to lefty reliever Zach Duke. That $2MM signing didn’t pan out, leading the Reds to release Duke in July.
While Duke struggled as part of the Reds’ bullpen, fellow relievers Raisel Iglesias, Amir Garrett, Michael Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson and Matt Bowman each gave he club respectable or better production. All five of those hurlers are slated to return in 2020, though the Reds still “want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to improve the bullpen,” according to Williams.
Upgrading starting depth, defense and team speed are also on the Reds’ to-do list, but there probably won’t be a bigger winter priority for the team than improving its offense. The Reds ended the year 25th in the majors in both runs scored (701) and wRC+ (87), and only third baseman Eugenio Suarez and the young outfield duo of Aristides Aquino and Jesse Winker provided well-above-average numbers over a sizable sample of plate appearances.
Aquino, 25, started his career on an offensive rampage after an Aug. 1 promotion. He was a home run threat just about every time he stepped to the plate for a few weeks, becoming the fastest player ever to ever hit 15 (he did so in 122 PA). Aquino wound up with a prolific 19 in 225 trips to the plate, though his overall output tailed off badly over the final couple weeks of the campaign. Perhaps as a result of that, the Reds don’t want to gift him a starting spot in right field for next season.
“He’s going to have to continue to earn it and improve and build and we will take the approach in the offseason that the outfield as a whole, you know, we will be trying to add,” said Williams.
The Reds’ outfield next year could also continue to include Nick Senzel, a high-end infield prospect who transferred to center this season. Cincy was impressed with Senzel’s work in his first outfield action in the bigs, but Williams values Senzel’s flexibility and doesn’t want to commit to a 2020 position for him just yet. Whether the Reds add a starting-level second baseman or pick up a No. 1-caliber center fielder figures to influence where Senzel will primarily line up in a year. Indeed, the Reds’ middle infield “needs to be figured out,” acknowledged Williams, who revealed the Reds will “look into” re-signing pending free-agent shortstop Jose Iglesias. The light-hitting, defensively adept Iglesias proved to be a shrewd minor league signing for the club going into this season, but his ceiling isn’t particularly high. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Reds let him walk and pursue better options than him and the controllable talent on hand (namely Freddy Galvis and Jose Peraza).
Between Suarez at the hot corner and Joey Votto at first, the rest of the team’s starting infield appears etched in stone going into 2020. Elsewhere, while Williams regards catchers Tucker Barnhart and Curt Casali as starting-caliber backstops, he admitted that “we could look to get more offensively out of the catching.” Big-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal, a former Reds farmhand, headlines the class of backstops who are about to reach free agency. He has already been linked to the Reds in the rumor mill this week.
Regardless of whether the Reds try to reunite with Grandal, it appears they’re shaping up to have one of the league’s most active offseasons. There’s “a strong emphasis on trying to win now,” Williams declared. “And win in the short term. We believe we will build a postseason team for 2020.”
Didi Gregorius? Starlin Castro? Brad Miller? Neil Walker?
Brock Holt? Jason Kipnis? Eric Sogard? Asdrubal Cabrera?
A lot of possible middle infield upgrades this year in FA.
I’d like to see them pursue Didi if the yankees don’t go hard after him (which is still 50-50 at this point). He brings a good personality with postseason experience and is definitely a step up from all the other names on the shortstop market.
But his WAR this year, was less the Iglesias.
Recovery form TJ surgery may have been part of this.
So unless you think he will improve, I say no..
And he’s a former Red.
Addison Russell?
Those are upgrades?
Most of your list would be downgrades
Other than Didi- that’s not an upgrade list
That trade with the Dodgers last winter sounded ridiculous at the time, and is definitely showing even more ridiculous now.
Not true they they got rid of bailey saved millions , they have plenty of money to spend in 2020
Negative! The Reds didn’t save a penny on that deal, they actually took on more salary than they got rid of.
Plus gave up 2 really good prospects in Gray, and Downs.
But they saw an increase in ticket sales. They put a better product on the field and for the most part of the season their offense scored more runs than the pitchers gave up. So, in reality, they might have made more money this year than they did last year or the previous few years.
But they got 7 mil back, so salary wise, it was a wash.
It looked good at the time, but Puig and Wood where busts.
LOL. No. Bailey still sucks. We’d still be paying him and keeping him in the rotation. Instead, all of the money from that trade is off the books and we have Bauer in the rotation. In retrospect, we unloaded contract money plus traded Bailey and a few prospects for Trevor Bauer. Good move.
The trade was a disaster. Bailey had a better year that the 4 they got back combined. Throw in they gave up their 5th best prospect makes the trade HORRIBLE!!!
Trading Trammell is a travesty.
The Dodger trade was beyond awful
Why? He’s still stuck in AA ball hitting .230. Most overrated prospect in baseball.
Nah – not even close. He was a clubhouse moron, an albatross. Why did the org need another 4.50+ ERA with 163 IP in 31 starts? Those are a dime a dozen. Getting Farmer and half a season of Puig was far more valuable than having that loser.
His grand slam won the Texas league championship.
So…
If you think that about Trammell than you truly know zip about baseball.
He may be great and he may never make the majors. But I’ll take the bird in the hand over 2 in the bush.
I agree. What the hell were the Dodgers thinking? Who gives up 4 major leagues for 2 mid level prospects and a guy they cut the next day?
Totally. We could have had Homer Bailey and three prospects instead of Trevor Bauer and a lot less money. LOL.
Not the case. They turned the main piece they got from the Dodgers (Puig), plus an overrated prospect who had yet to get above AA (Trammell) into 1.5 years of Trevor Bauer, whom they will likely resign to a longer deal. Pitching wins. They have a legit top 3 in Castillo, Bauer and Gray. That wouldn’t have occurred without making the deal with the Dodgers.
I’m not sure why Iglesias gets knocked as if he were an incompetent offensive player. Not saying he’s going to all of a sudden put up huge numbers but he did bat .288 with 11 homers last year and throughout his career has had steady success putting the ball in play. That coupled with his sterling defense ought to give him some credibility as an option to start at short either for the Red or somewhere else.
Doesn’t walk enough, so even with a .288 BA his OBA is under .320. And 11 HRs in this past years environemnt is like hitting -4 HRs in the past.
Having said that, a team could live with his bat and benefit from his glove if they have enough offense elsewhere. As of now, Reds don’t.
He only has an 85 OPS+. He’s a really good defender, but there are plenty of fielding first, bat later type of players they could go after.
I agree. He won them some games with his bat in the first half as well as saved some with his glove throughout. If he were to get with the program and work on his pitch selection, he could be AS quality. But he’s a Boras client, so I don’t expect for him to sign with this org.
Trevor B was a mistake….he had 1 good season aside that his Whip has always been the issue.
I disagree with that. I think Trevor Bauer spent most of his time trying hard to acclimate to what the Reds wanted from him. He wasn’t negative about it either like he can be so I expect improvement from him in 2020.
He’s also a big Driveline proponent – which fits perfectly in the org now. He will go to work this offseason to adjust and be ready to go in the spring.
Let’s hope so, because he was horrible to watch. Not to mention he’s kind of a jerk. The last thing this team needs is a cancer in the clubhouse.
Why would the Reds want to bring anyone into steal Votto’s negativity. One huge over paid a-hole is enough in locker room.
He’s far from negative…obviously you know nothing about the man. He just want to win…with the Reds.
Contract year, He wants a year to year contact.
He will do well.
$$$ is on the table.
As long as Produce Bob and Crooked Dick are running the Reds there won’t ever be a winning season in Cincinnati. There are three well run teams sitting in front of the Reds and the top of NL Central that the Reds can’t overcome with this ownership and management in place.
Another person that knows the truth
What’s the problem with Williams? Jocketty was the one who ruined the team. Williams and Krall have done quite well in the very short period of time they’ve had power. It must be remembered that this duo has only existed since May 2018.
The Sonny Gray trade was a good one but the Dodger trade and the Bauer trade were beyond awful
They’ve depleted the farm and only got Sonny to show for it
Horrible
Our farm is less talented, but hardly depleted. The FO has stated that we are about done trading prospects anyway. The Bauer trade can’t be judged yet because it’s too early to tell. He has only pitched 10 games. Many of those weren’t impressive. However next year he will have settled in with the team more and will have had more time to work with Johnson and Boddy. Having Boddy around all season will also help Bauer. Lastly it must be remembered that Trammell, though promising, has not been tested beyond the AA level.
The Reds need some changes. I wonder if Dick Williams is willing to go by Richard Williams for starters.
The Reds need to get creative with their roster construction. Flexible players/multiple positions. I don’t think they need to go all in on a big long term contract. They did that with Votto & Bailey, neither worked that well (at least not the last two years with Votto). Take a cue from the DRays/A’s . Look at non-tender reclamation’s & savvy trades . They clearly made a decision that Trammel was not a CF and was not going to hit enough to be more than a corner OF. That being said, they only get Bauer for 1 year, so they have to strike now to make that trade make any sense. Castellini is not getting any younger, so my guess is he is pushing for a winner now. It would not surprise me to see Lodolo take the 5th spot in rotation at least by July. Their rotation could be great, but need depth. Can’t count on everyone making every start again. Bullpen upgrades are needed. Again, DRays have assembled an enviable group of cost controlled relief arms. That would be a good blueprint. I also have concerns about David Bell. He has to improve next year, because he showed his inexperience handling a pitching staff…
Good post. As far as Bell goes, I’d like to think he learned some tough lessons this year and will improve. Not saying you, but so many fans seem to want Casey Stengall instantly…
Next Year:
CF Senzel
1B Votto
3B Suarez
LF Power Hitting Lefty TBD
RF Aquino
SS Gregorious
C Grandal
2B Galvis
SP
And Winker will be traded