Dick Williams has spent more than 15 years in the Reds organization, working in a variety of roles on both the business and baseball ops side of the club prior to being named assistant GM in 2014. A year later, Williams was promoted to general manager as former GM Walt Jocketty ascended to president of baseball operations. At the time of the promotions, though, Jocketty made clear that his days as the club’s top decision-maker were numbered, plainly stating that the much younger Williams was being “groomed” for that post.
[Related: Dick Williams discusses his path to a front office in MLBTR’s College Series]
A year later, in December 2016, that became official when Jocketty moved into an advisory role and formally handed baseball operations autonomy over to Williams, who was named president of baseball operations. Let’s take a look at his track record since that promotion…
2016-17 Offseason
- Acquired RHPs Luis Castillo and Austin Brice and OF Zeek White from the Marlins in exchange for RHP Dan Straily
- Acquired LHP Andrew McKirahan and RHP Carlos Portuondo from the Braves in exchange for 2B Brandon Phillips (Reds paid $13MM of Phillips’ $14MM salary)
2017 Season
- Acquired INF/OF Darnell Sweeney from the Dodgers in exchange for cash
- Acquired 1B Nick Longhi from the Red Sox in exchange for $2.75MM of international bonus pool space
- Acquired OF Scott Van Slyke and C Hendrik Clementina from the Dodgers in exchange for LHP Tony Cingrani
2017-18 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Miguel Medrano from the Rangers in exchange for $350K of international bonus pool space
2018 Season
- Acquired RHP Zach Neal and 1B Ibandel Isabel from the Dodgers in exchange for RHP Ariel Hernandez
- Acquired RHP Matt Harvey from the Mets in exchange for C Devin Mesoraco (Reds paid remainder of Mesoraco’s $13.125MM salary; Mets paid remainder of Harvey’s $5.6MM)
- Acquired C Curt Casali from the Rays in exchange for cash
- Acquired RHP Tommy Bergjans from the Phillies in exchange for cash
- Acquired OF Lorenzo Cedrola from the Red Sox in exchange for $1.5MM of international bonus pool space
- Acquired RHPs Aneurys Zabala and James Marinan from the Dodgers in exchange for RHPs Dylan Floro and Zach Neal and international bonus pool space
- Acquired RHPs Lucas Sims and Matt Wisler and OF Preston Tucker from the Braves in exchange for Adam Duvall
2018-19 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Ryan Lillie from the Marlins in exchange for $750K of international bonus pool space
- Acquired RHP Tanner Roark from the Nationals in exchange for RHP Tanner Rainey
- Acquired LHP Alex Wood, OFs Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig, INF/OF Kyle Farmer and $7MM from the Dodgers in exchange for RHP Homer Bailey, SS Jeter Downs and RHP Josiah Gray
- Acquired RHP Sonny Gray and LHP Reiver Sanmartin from the Yankees in exchange for 2B Shed Long (immediately flipped to Mariners) and Competitive Balance Draft pick (Round A)
- Acquired RHP Jordan Johnson and cash from the Giants in exchange for 1B/3B/OF Connor Joe
2019 Season
- Acquired RHP Diomar Lopez from the Padres in exchange for RHP Matt Wisler
- Acquired INF/OF Rob Refsnyder from the D-backs in exchange for cash
- Acquired RHP Tristan Archer from the Brewers in exchange for cash
- Acquired LHP Tyler Jay from the Twins in exchange for cash
- Acquired RHP Justin Grimm from the Dodgers in exchange for cash
- Acquired RHP Trevor Bauer from the Indians in a three-team deal that sent OF Taylor Trammell to the Padres; Reds also sent OF Yasiel Puig and LHP Scott Moss to the Indians
2019-20 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Jose De Leon from the Rays in exchange for cash
- Acquired cash from the Rays in exchange for OF Brian O’Grady
- Acquired RHP Justin Shafer from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash
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How do MLBTR readers feel about the work of Williams? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors mobile app users.)
Curious to look back on additional GMs and their trade histories? We’ve already polled on Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen, recently fired Astros president Jeff Luhnow, Brewers president of baseball ops David Stearns, Angels GM Billy Eppler, Rockies GM Jeff Bridich, Tigers GM Al Avila, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, Phillies GM Matt Klentak, Padres GM A.J. Preller, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, Rays GM Erik Neander, ex-Red Sox front office leader Dave Dombrowski and Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen.
I say he’s the definition of a solid “D”
That what she said ?
Dynamite for the win!
NO, A solid C.
Some good trades, and no major busts.
Now that Walt is not messing him up, I hope to see better.
I’d give him a B because he got Gray and Castillo for barely anything
I agree
Reds are doing some things correct but other things not as much.
Truthfully thinking they are trying to rush things.
Trades are not his strong suit. Same as putting together a roster.
To me they totally screwed everything up this off-season and they were heading in the right direction.
LOL. Reds made great moves over the last few years and have put together a division contender with potential for more. I love the rotation and the lineup. A lot will ride on Votto, Shogo and Castellanos, but very happy with the recent work relative to the rest of the league.
The Castillo trade was the only deal that seems like a steal on this list. The Puig/Kemp/Wood one paid decent dividends. Otherwise it’s kinda meh. I give him a C+ overall.
That big Dodgers trade was terrible. It certainly did pay dividends for LA.
It might pay dividends for LA.
It already did since one of the prospects they got put them over the goal line to get the 2nd best player in baseball.
How many games are they getting out of Mookie? If LAD won because they then traded a prospect as a piece in another trade then Cin has to win because the LAD flipped that prospect for nothing except to say he was on the best team that never played.
Agreed. When this is all said and done, Reds are going to regret getting rid of Josiah
Ok, Texas. Cool your jets.
How was the sonny gray trade not a steal?
Yes the Sonny Gray trade was an A
almost an A but the Bauer trade ruined it.
Bauer trade was fine, yeah Bauer didn’t do very well, but neither did Puig nor trammell(trammell was already bad but actually got worse after the trade)
i have never been a Trammell fan, but i just wonder if they could have gotten more for him. (though I’m also not a Bauer fan, so that would explain things some as well)
Bauer trade was fine, yeah he wasn’t very good in the second half, but neither were puig and trammell (trammell was already bad but actually got worse after the trade)
Puig was good after the trade but still was a bad trade by any stretch Bauer should be more like himself this year
*wasn’t
don’t know why this posted twice
Taylor Trammell did not get worse after the trade.
C. Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray are the only trades that have worked out well to this point. And they got lucky with the Dan Straily trade. Nobody thought Castillo would turn into this. He’d been shipped around before. And we definitely weren’t getting someone teams thought was a potential ace for Dan Straily. And I’ve already spoken about how I feel about them giving up Gray, Downs and Trammell.
i really think you can just contribute Castillo to the Marlins and their foolishness. SD clearly wanted him, and their willingness to get rid of him as his stock was rising fairly rapidly just shows the foolishness of that FO.
Giants had him first and traded him to the Marlins for Casey McGehee. I don’t know if the Marlins knew what they had, and I don’t think the Reds did either.
Uhhh straily was not a potenial ace lol. He was a pitcher who had a pretty good year with really bad advanced stats showing he was gonna regress. I wonder if people overvalue prospects. Hindsight is 20/20 i think both gray and Castillo deals were smart because they thought gray would be a lot better and they knew what they had with Straily and so they dealt him knowing he would regress for a pitcher with a lot of upside and ended up meeting that upside.
Uhhhh Didn’t say Straily was a potential ace. LOL
Guy was a damn good manager tho
he hasn’t aged a bit though I think he’s coloring his hair now
Sifting through the (so far) worthless trades, I’d say Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray trades were steals. Jury is still out on the Bauer trade. Obviously it will be a crap trade if there’s no season. The one trade I hate is the trade with the Dodgers last year. I wish we still had Downs and Gray.
Yes, but who knew woods would be injured basically the whole season.
Wood gets hurt a fair amount…
He’s had a few minor injuries but only 1 that took him out for a large amount of time. They obviously expected a mostly healthy season and tbh of wood was healthy and puig played like he had the previous two years the reds might make the playoffs but obviously didn’t work out that well
Casali is a sneaky good deal for basically nothing. Good, quality backstop
Casali is very good against lefties.
Pitchers love him! He’s a great clubhouse guy too and as a backup catcher that’s a very important quality to have
Big fan of Dick H.
What a Dick he is
Dick has surprised me on the deals he made!! I think he has done a pretty good job.But I think he will wish he hadn’t trade Shed Long and Jeter Downs!