Dick Williams has resigned as Cincinnati Reds President of Baseball Operations. Williams, who has worked for the Reds in various roles over the last 15 years, sounds like he wants to spend more time with his family.
“I am not sure everybody appreciates the sacrifices our families make for us in this sport. In order to do this job right, you are at a ballpark, either in the major or minor leagues, every single day, night and weekend from mid-February until deep into the fall,” said Williams, who spent the last five years as head of the baseball operations department. “That was a lot to ask of my young family, and they supported me every step of the way. It is time to pour some of that energy back into them.”
In 2016, Williams took over as the teams General Manager under Walt Jocketty, who was then the teams President of Baseball Operations. He stayed there until 2018 when Nick Krall was promoted to General Manager, and Williams took over as the President of Baseball Operations for the team.
When Williams took over the role as General Manager, he brought with him a newer set of baseball ideas – ones that helped bring the Cincinnati Reds a bit closer to modern baseball and catch up with the leading teams around the league – something that was sorely missing before he took over the job.
“Dick has been an integral part of the Reds’ success from our first days of ownership in 2006 through our Postseason appearance in 2020,” said Reds CEO Bob Castellini. “He took the lead on modernizing every aspect of our baseball operations. Dick was the mastermind behind our incredible facility in Goodyear, drove advances in our scouting and player development systems, expanded our capacity for analytics and established our sports science departments, just to name a few.”
As for the job of President of Baseball Operations for the Cincinnati Reds – who, if anyone, will take it over, is still unknown. We do know that we won’t see a promotion of Nick Krall into the job, according to the team’s official press release, which states that he will continue in his role as the Vice President, General Manager of the Reds. Most teams do have both a General Manager and a President of Baseball Operations. The release from the team does not mention a search for someone new to take over the job as President of Baseball Operations.
Here is the entire Cincinnati Reds Press Release:
The Cincinnati Reds this morning announced that Dick Williams has resigned as President of Baseball Operations to pursue personal interests outside baseball.
Nick Krall will continue in his role as the team’s Vice President, General Manager.
“Dick has been an integral part of the Reds’ success from our first days of ownership in 2006 through our Postseason appearance in 2020,” said Reds CEO Bob Castellini. “He took the lead on modernizing every aspect of our baseball operations. Dick was the mastermind behind our incredible facility in Goodyear, drove advances in our scouting and player development systems, expanded our capacity for analytics and established our sports science departments, just to name a few.”
“It is the right time for me to begin a transition, both professionally and personally. I have been affiliated with this organization in one way or another for most of my life, but I have been working here full-time for 15 years,” Williams said. “More than anything, I was so proud to represent this unbelievable city of ours. It was the honor of a lifetime to be a small part of assembling teams that went out and battled for these fans. My earliest memories are of being a fan of the Reds and of my father and grandfather being involved with the team and bringing that success. I always wanted to play a part in bringing that full circle.”
Castellini said, “Dick has an incredible baseball IQ, and his gift for innovation came at the right time in history. We are enormously proud of the contributions he has made to this franchise.”
“I am not sure everybody appreciates the sacrifices our families make for us in this sport. In order to do this job right, you are at a ballpark, either in the major or minor leagues, every single day, night and weekend from mid-February until deep into the fall,” said Williams, who spent the last five years as head of the baseball operations department. “That was a lot to ask of my young family, and they supported me every step of the way. It is time to pour some of that energy back into them.”
“No doubt this change in course will give Dick more time with his family,” said Castellini. “And, Dick loves to learn, so he is going to thrive professionally being in a new environment.”
“I am looking forward to the opportunity to work directly with my father and uncle for the first time,” added Williams, who is taking a position with family-owned and controlled North American Properties. “Aside from the Reds, we have a lot of exciting businesses to grow.”
“I owe Bob Castellini a debt of gratitude for allowing me this opportunity. I wish I could have brought him and the rest of our ownership group a world championship by now,” Williams said. “Bob truly loves this franchise and will put everything he can into it. He has been very supportive and understanding of my situation. I look forward to watching our team next year at the ballpark and have offered my continued support to Bob, Nick and the rest of the team.”
“Dick is a Cincinnati Red through and through, and his departure from our day-to-day operations leaves a void,” said Castellini. “We are going to take a closer at the structure of our baseball operations before making any decisions about replacing him.”
During Williams’ tenure in the front office, the Reds won the National League’s Central Division twice, earned four Postseason berths and received Baseball America’s prestigious Organization of the Year Award in 2012.
Under his leadership as the head of the team’s baseball operations department, the Reds strengthened their farm system by growing their amateur scouting and player development staffs, implemented analytics initiatives that included the additions of both personnel and infrastructure, strengthened the scouting presence in the Pacific Rim and Latin America and became one of the first teams in baseball to establish a sports science and wellness department.
So… what exactly does Nick Krall do? I liked DW better than NK.
Every organization kind of does things a little differently when it comes to the President and GM break down, but generally the President of Baseball Ops kind of oversees more of the long term, big picture stuff for the entire organization. Not that the GM doesn’t have some input on all of that stuff, but the GM is more on the player side of things rather than organizational wide stuff if that makes sense.
Well without Williams there to oversee, Krall should do what he as always wanted and bring in Larkin to manage!
Tony Perez 2.0
I do not envy anyone going into that job from outside the Reds organization and Reds “family.”
-GM already in place
-Manager already in place
-Buddy Bell, Joe Morgan and who knows who else has owner’s ear
-Farm system … meh. No wave of position players all maturing at once.
-Aging postion players with little/no chance of moving, for multiple reasons
Eh.
Suarez has value.
Castillo ton of value.
Garret ton of value.
Could dump Votto in 2 years without it being a big deal.
You could rebuild farm system with your own guys and be back at it in 2-3 years if you had the guts (a la what Jeter did with the Fish).
It’s likely castellini and not DW calls the shots on this team so who knows if this is an impactful move.
I would add Gray to this list
Actually Schottzie, you’re making a better point than Sliotar made about the unattractive aspects of this job – that Castellini is calling the shots, not the President of Operations. You have an owner who won’t let you do your job.
You don’t envy someone going into a premiere job in baseball, one of only 30 such positions in the world? I must wish I had your job then.
edited
Watch the language.
thank you sorry!
Aging players? Yes Votto cannot be in the heart of the lineup if we want to have a good hitting team. His time has passed a few years ago! He would be good as dh to try to get a walk!!!
Time stops for no one. I wish Dick Williams all the best in his new endeavors.
Yippee ki yah. Yippee ki yah.
One down and one to go. Time for the axe to fall on David Bell.
Now get a real MLB executive to lead this franchise. And a real baseball manager. Not one that is a slave to the spreadsheets.
Banner day in Cincinnati. It would be a ticker tape parade day if Bell gets fired today.
What a day. This, and it is sunny and 75 and not a cloud in the sky. What a day.
Just don’t mess it up by hiring Dave Dombrowski for the front office or Barry Larkin as manager.
Never once read that Bob Castellini tried to talk Williams into staying.
They said a the things but that. Sounds like Williams was shown the door. But with a gracious bow out. Spin it like you will. Of course there was the usual tried and true, but getting old excuse, of I did to spend more time with the family. Yeah right.
See below. I think DW knew when to leave. At worst from his viewpoint, this was one of those “mutual decision” partings. The August meeting may have been him offering to fall on his sword with BigBob saying, “No, Let’s wait till the season is over then do it”.
Let’s see what Castellini does now. If he goes “national” and all out in the search like when Dusty was brought in to manage, that will be a strong indication, he was more than ready to see DW go. If he patches together what amounts to an in house solution, very less so.
At about the same age as Dick Williams is now I made a couple of career decisions to limit the time my job required of me. So, I accept his statements at face value.
This said I also wonder if perhaps DW was smart enough to reach a realization that when it came to the pure baseball side of the business, judging talent and fitting pieces together, he was likely to be always behind the curve due to his lack of basic background in that area. Maybe if he hangs around another 5 years or decade, he gets closer but felt it was time to move on to his true comfort zone where his “instincts” were already honed
I am about 6 years younger than Dick Williams and I too already am thinking of spending less time stressing about work / job and spending more time with family.
It’s not a midlife crisis. More of a re-evaluation of what’s important in life.
+1000
I’m really surprised that a lot of people have forgotten so quickly where this organization was before DW took over as President. As Doug mentioned in his article the list of things that he’s brought to the Reds to modernize the operations. A full leadership training program for the players in the minors, a complete overhaul of the pitching development including stealing Derek Johnson and an amazing hire of Boddy. He instilled a completely new method of communication between coaches at all levels. Everyone was screaming about hiring an analytical style manager and he did that. The trades that brought the Reds a dominant pitching staff. Finally spending a lot in free agency and much much more. But now some are cheering his departure.
Yeah I remember where we at…….In the playoffs and a National league power….
+1,000
I’ve always appreciated that Reds fans aren’t as naive (read: dumb) as Cubs fans. But, we’re also among the most hand-wringing, ungrateful fans in baseball. DW took over in 2016 after the team had taken a nose dive for two consecutive seasons. Under his leadership, he made multiple surprising and nationally-heralded trades that led to the Reds returning to the playoffs.
People to chill out.
*People need to chill out.
I did and didn’t see this coming.
I don’t know what this means or who runs what in this organization because, like the Bengals, it’s pretty insular by design. But, the Williams family, involved since the 1960s for the Reds now have only ownership/exec. oversight positions in the organization. There seems to be no need to replace Williams since there has been a lot of staff added in response to the initiatives he has put in place. Interestingly, the next senior position to Williams is the Senior Advisor to Baseball Operations, Buddy Bell. This leaves Castellini with the option to double down on David Bell or boot both of them to other parts of the organization, like minor league development, scouting, etc. Castellini is a very rich man but cannot be happy with the return on his considerable investment this past season. Hereto, why the talk about Williams possibly making plans to leave in August? He seemed to be ultimately responsible for promoting/hiring David Bell. If he can stick around for only about 200 games into Bell’s regime, that’s pretty telling about the confidence remaining in Bell (irrespective of his family needs).
Just a hunch, but I think Castellini wants to win and the next year or two may be the last chance for a while with the aging team, money having been spent, etc. Don’t expect any new big name players or Bauer next season, but some money saved from bloated staff and free agents let go may allow a new outside management team to be hired and give this team a run. Just hoping here!
Interesting placement of Buddy Bell in the hierarchy. I always think of spots like he is in as being off to the side of the primary organizational chart, people who are available to offer an opinion on request. Alternately because of some background knowledge or skill they have, they are asked to perform specific fixed duration and purpose tasks or evaluations. In my view, until they settle on a longer term plan, it is Krall running the show and reporting to Castellini.
As to Williams leaving ~ 200 games into the David Bell era, any number of personal issues or matters can arise very quickly which adjust and change perspective, values and priorities.
His plan may have well been all along to jump over to the Williams family business at some point. With all that is going on in the world, it wouldn’t seem unusual that a real estate business could use DW’s financial management skills in a serious way now and not later.
Or alternately like many of us have experienced on a work, home or community project, maybe DW gave all he had to give for as long as he could only to see the project while accomplishing many objectives still short of its final goal but with he having not enough left in the tank to keep on at the required level.
Unlike most I did not think DW did a bad job. I think the team improved uner his leadership. Not great but certainly improved. He seems to get a lot of grief for the moves he made this past off season. Of course he was widely praised for them during the off season. Then Nick C hit 225, Mike Moose hit about the same. Votto who was untradeable hit the same 225. So those moves are panned as terrible. Amazing how many people on here seem to think he should have known they would all be busts. Hopefully the improvement we have seen continues. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
I appreciate what DW contributed but always scratched my head at the promotion. There are inhereit conflicts when you have a family member of an owner responsible with making personnel decisions. Obviously we don’t know if there were ever issues with this but optically it was odd. Furthermore, Big Bob knew he could never “fire” DW given his family’s ownership. This is the only way it could happen.
Clearly it was nepotism, but unlike the bengals nepotism, DW is a competent person. Was he a Billy Bean, Epstein, or even a great “baseball guy”? Of course not, but he was better than Walt jockety and half of the other guys out there because he LISTENED to people who had ideas that were not already their own!
I may be wrong but, I believe this was the PC way of moving Williams out of the organization.Look for Tim Naehring, Yankees vice president of baseball operations to take the job. Naehring has been key to the Yankees success and was born and raised in Cincinnati.
+100
Naehring is an alum of LaSalle H. S. and Miami University. Local connections are always important in the Reds organization. And he played eight years for the Red Sox, ending up with a .282 career batting average. That could also be a positive for the Red’s new hitting philosophy.
I don’t really think Naehring will leave a premier job with the Yankees to return to a small market.
Naehring. Interesting.
My guess is he looked at this Reds team and realized it was going to be an aging team hampered by bad contracts with little to no relief coming from the minors and he didn’t want to be around when the wheels came off. He seems like a nice guy but he was a disaster as a GM. One thing is for certain; the next GM will be inheriting a mess.
@citzen54
Disaster as a GM? Bauer, Castillo, Gray. Were you against them signing Castellanos? Did you complain when he was able to get Suarez to sign for 7 years and 63 million?
Yes, I was against the signings of Castellanos, Moustakas, Miley and Strop. Who in their right mind overpays in both years and dollars for average free agents? I just thought it was funny how the Reds never spent much in free agency and then when they finally opened up the check book they did it on such mediocre players that weren’t going to move the needle much one way or another. Suarez was a good signing but he wasn’t a free agent.
Williams made one good trade, the one for Gray. You might be able to say that the trades for Roark and Sims were decent. Unfortunately that doesn’t make up for the two disasters with the Dodgers and Indians. He gutted the farm system for what was expected to be a short run in the playoffs, if they even made it that far, and that’s what in fact happened. The trades made no sense because the Reds were in last place or close it when the trades occurred and the players they received were only going to be under team control for one year give or take. Now, as expected the Reds are stuck with an aging team, no World Series ring and no hope on the horizon.
Did you just suggest that the trade for Luis Castillo wasn’t good? Or the trade for Trevor Bauer wasn’t good?
I’m not sure that Williams was solely responsible for the Castillo trade since Jocketty was still involved with the Reds at the time. But ya obviously if he had been making more of those kind of trades instead of giving up youth for guys with one year of control left, the Reds would be looking much better today. I should also credit him for signing Casali so that was another good move by him. He was fine from 2017-2018 then all of a sudden for whatever reason he decided that the Reds had to win now. That’s when he started making all these boneheaded short term moves.
And ya the Bauer trade was bad. The Bauer trade was a move made by a second to last place team for one shot at the World Series. The Reds weren’t and still aren’t just one Bauer away from winning the World Series. That’s why it was a bad trade. It’s like putting a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires on a stock Honda Civic for one shot at the Indy 500. Ya the tires are going to make the car better but there is still no way it is going to win the Indy 500. So now you are out $2400 and you still didn’t win the Indy 500, except in this case the Reds are out 3 Top 100 prospects. I wouldn’t exactly call that a success.
Castellanos wasn’t average with the Cubs. He spent most of his career in Detroit and huge Comerica Park. There was good reason to think he could blossom with the Reds and maybe he still will? Its easy to see the answers after they’ve taken the test. Strop & Miley….I would agree with you, but they were just add-ons
@Indy The jury is still out on Castellanos and Moustakas because of the shortened season. Castellanos’s Statcast numbers were pretty good this year but I don’t think, going forward, his offense is going to make up for his defense. He plays a position where players are supposed to be good with the bat so at best I think he will be average. Moustakas is a solid right now but he is on the wrong side of 30.
I just wish these guys had been signed to shorter contracts. The main reason these signings were bad is because now the Reds have all these committed dollars and can’t sign anyone decent until 2024 unless they decide to increase the budget which is unlikely after a year with no ticket sales. Couple this with the lack of talent in the farm system and the current talent level of the Reds and maybe you can see why I am so pessimistic about the future.
Don’t forget bringing an analytics focus to the organization.
Do whatever Tampa Bay is doing.
Yep. Tampa would never sign Moose and Castellanos. Bad baseball decisions
The Reds have gone from trying to build with young players, to making several trades, to signing aging/average free agents. No plan. Tampa has a plan and sticks to it.
The Reds are just a poorly run organization with no direction or plan for success.
Frustrating
The direction the Red’s organization will take depends on the principal owner, currently Robert Castellini, or perhaps another wealthy Cincinnatian who is willing to bring in knowledgeable people who will pattern the Reds on other non-big market teams like Tampa Bay and Oakland. An outstanding farm system should be central to consistently good Red’s teams. Currently the Reds are becoming an older team without much in the pipeline except pitching.
I certainly didn’t see this coming this offseason. As I wrote a couple times in comments previously, I thought next year would be the year Williams and Krall would be on the hot seat if things didn’t go well. Whether or not it was truly Williams’ decision to leave or if he was forced out is speculation for us fans. However, I certainly would love to see a GM hired with previous success at building a contending team. Dombrowski is available. Epstein may end up being let go by the Cubs before his contract ends at the end of 2021. One name that sounds intriguing from the list of potential candidates Bobby Nightengale listed today in his Cincinnati Enquirer article is Matt Arnold, assistant GM of the Brewers. From the article:
“Arnold was a finalist for the Pirates’ general manager job last offseason. He joined the Brewers as an assistant general manager in fall 2015 and provides oversight for all areas of their baseball operations department.
He worked with the Reds from 2003-06 as an assistant director of pro scouting, then spent nine seasons inside of the Rays’ organization. He was Tampa Bay’s director of pro scouting from 2009-15.
He knows how to work in a mid-sized market and he’s helped build a lot of winning teams.”
If he was interested in this position, he sounds like he’d be perfect. The previous experience with the Reds was back when they had a ton of success drafting and developing quality players (many of whom were the core of the 2010-2013 teams). Then he was with the Brewers and Rays, two more extremely well-run small market teams.
Am I missing something. Seems like he’ll transition to an ownership role in 5-10 years, and I take his statement as credible and common sense. He’s not , and wasn’t, the “baseball” guy, so if the management and structure changes work, good for him.
If they keep spending at or above current levels they’ll be fine. I think he did very well.
Basically Dick Williams was bout to get fired. Ownership asks him if he wants to resign and he uses the old wanna spend more time with the family. Right. Hopefully Bob hires the right baseball guy lol.
I really think that the David Bell family misses their patriarch. He needs to spend more time with them…do you hear me, Mr. Bell? Be a good husband and father and give up your job for them.
@citizens54
So you ignore pretty much the whole rotation and go on a rant about Castellanos being average (he is not over his career), Moose (hasnt been average hitter since 2014). Glad we can have a wacky debate where you ignore anything good.
Castellanos is an average player. He was above average in 2018 and 2019 and below average in 2017 and 2020. For his career he is 11% above with his hitting but his defense drags him down to average category. ZIPS has him projected for 1.7 WAR in 2021and 2022 which is below average. And if he is so good then why weren’t the Cubs or any other team willing to sign him to a long term deal? As for Moustakas, he is is projected to have 1.7 WAR in 2021 and 1.2 WAR in 2022. So actually I misspoke, these two are probably going to be below average in the coming years.
As for the rotation I already gave him credit for Gray. Castilio is still up in the air since Jocketty was invoiced at the time. Bauer was good but it was still bad trade since the Reds only have had him for one year and, most importantly, the Reds weren’t anywhere close to having the talent to win the World Series. Mahle and Disco were already with the Reds before Williams took over. You could even argue that the Miley signing was bad unless it was just for depth because the Reds already had a decent #5 in Mahle. And yes I was saying look at his advanced stats instead of ERA back then when every on here was complaining about how bad Mahle was.
You can cheer the moves that Williams made if you want. They did make the Reds a better team for the short term. Unfortunately, the Reds are going to suffer the consequences of those short sighted moves in the coming years and I hope you will be as forgiving of whoever is in the front office then as you are now.
You are picking and choosing what you are going to give him credit for while he was a GM and then president of baseball operation. Everyone was screaming go and get a bat and he got castellanos who has been average or above average for years. If you we are somehow giving Jocketty credit for Castillo then why are we not pointing out that tanked the franchise without any real return on the tanking?
Miley is insurance for 2021 and as a 4th or 5th starter he is likely to be a good one.
p.s. castillo trade happened after Williams became president of baseball operations at the start of 2017.
The reds gave up next to nothing for Bauer unless Taylor Trammell pans out in Seattle.
Looks like you are the one picking and choosing.
Are you going to answer the question why no one else was really pursuing Castellanos him if he is so good? The Cubs saw him everyday for half a year. Why didn’t they want to sign him?
Are you going to address the fact that the Reds gave up 3 Top 100 prospects and have nothing to show for it?
Are you going talk about how the free agent signings have locked up the Reds for the next couple of years?
Are you going to address the fact that teams like the White Sox and Padres who were in the same boat as the Reds a couple years ago are now looking like contenders for the foreseeable future while the Reds look like they are getting ready for another rebuild?
I just gave you some projections about Castellanos being below average yet you keep insisting that he is an above average player. Do you have any projections backing up your claim?
And no the Reds did not give up next to nothing to get Bauer. They gave up $60 million per 2018 dollars in prospect value to acquire Bauer. Maybe it still hasn’t dawned on you but the Reds have nothing to show from the Bauer trade. Oh check that they had a two game appearance in the playoffs. I wonder if there is a trophy for that.
Miley is going to be a good 4th or 5th starter? The Reds have plenty of young arms, that signing was not needed at all.
The trade for Gray was great. Bauer helped this year, but, that is the extent.
Moose and Castellanos are bad signings. The Reds are now an aging team with no farm system and suspect draft results. Not a good place to be.
Stick with an organizational plan instead of changing each year
I agree citizen54 and you didn’t even touch on the Rainey for Roark trade or the two trades this year where they gave up good prospects for Bradley and Goodwin, neither of which moved the needle much (or at all in Goodwin’s case). Reds are a small market team. They need to develop from within so they have young core players that they can control for many years at low cost.
Maybe he was watching the VP debate and got confused. lol..
Overall, I appreciate the job Dick Williams did. Much better than his predecessor. Certainly did a lot to modernize the organization.
I think what this shows is that DIck Williams was a good behind the scenes GM or POBO. The accolades Castellini gave him for the Arizona complex and the modernization of the pitching philosophies and the minor leagues. They are warranted. But his on the field product was always one step forward and two steps backwards. His roster building and management skills were suspect. Some trades worked out and some did not. The trade with the Dodgers in December 2018 will go down as one of the top 3 worst trades in Reds history. And I truly believe that his free agent signing of Moustakas at the unbelievably high terms Moose signed for was a panicked response to not being able to sign Gregorius or Grandal. At that time it was all about #Get The Hitting and the top affordable hitters were signing elsewhere.
The front office will be better off with a new leader with impeccable baseball credentials.
I keep reading that about the LA trade. Why? What great gamechangers did we give up? The Reds lost 20 straight Homer starts over 2 seasons. One way or the other….HE HAD TO GO!! His body language was terrible. He was overdue to be sent packing and thats the way they found to do it. Its not like somebody wanted him for $5/mil let alone $20 mil/season. He sucked
After Homer stole $100 million, here is his total numbers from 2015-18
9-27 with a 6.80 era. So when he wasn’t sidelined from whiplash then he was busy giving up rockets
Only thing I’ll push back on a little there is that it ain’t stealing if they give it to you. May be more accurate to say, “After the Reds threw $100 million away on Homer Bailey.”
It’s really a trivial point.
Never liked the Bailey deal from the moment I read it online. I was like this guy has only proven being decent for like a half year or so why they throwing all this money at him. Boy was I ever right.
They would have been way better off just cutting Bailey, since they took Kemp back, which mitigated much of the cost savings. And they ended up cutting him right away.
Let’s not forget signing Mesoraco to $25 million extension after half a season of good baseball. Half of a season. Let that sink in. Bob, Bob, Bob…
JayTheRed is right on Bailey too–half a season. “Oh, and he pitched TWO no-hitters!” And no playoff wins.
Think about if that Bailey contract money was saved to make a deal with Cueto instead. It’s an old wound, but not a scar yet, because it still hurts.
DW tried. They made some good moves on paper, but the young guys just never really took off. I felt like he was a big improvement over Jocketty, but thats not saying much. They just need to keep working! Families come in 2nd with alot of these guys. Look at Andy Reid with the Chiefs. Finally got his SB ring, but one of his sons died at their training camp from drugs several years ago. That can be the price in some circumstances. Good for Dick Williams!!
Watching some of the A’s-Astros today and Dusty started Aledmys Diaz at DH. He had a .879 ops for the Cards in 2016. He was down 0-2 in the count on 2 horrible swings on breaking balls and ended up battling back and hitting a 2 run HR to tie the game. He has a lifetime .787 ops. Vastly superior hitter to somebody like Farmer. Thats the kind of little things that turn into big things and a possible WS appearance.
DW made a change and may have done the team and the organization a favor if they indeed go outside to find his replacement.I have always thought that the Good Ole Boy Network is a bad thing in most cases but its hard for an outsider to step in and make changes with a bunch of Good Ole Boys still in place.They make good fishing buddies but not in decision making positions within the same company.A proven baseball executive from another team is needed and needed badly.Unwilling to play younger players while we watch the vets fall off has to change and maybe he will do just that.
I hope that Reds are able to keep Kyle Boddy in the system… I suspect he could be x-factor in drawing free agent pitching to Reds, when previously FA were only interested if Reds were overpaying. He might be more important than “President of Baseball operations” at the moment .
Finally, some good news in Reds Country. How about some more.
Bring in Theo.
Dick Williams leaving is of course nothing to do with his family. Castellini forced him out.
It actually blows my mind everyone thinks this
Why? It happens all the time. It’s what everyone said about Thom–“oh he was allowed to ‘resign’ because he’s Reds’ family/aristocracy.”
Why not the same for DW?
A lot of theories to unpack here so I won’t even try to evaluate but in this case its rather simple. The path is there to effectively and politely clear the Williams/Bell nepotism brigade by moving the Bells to positions in other parts of the organization with the Williams only sharing in the ownership stake. Castellini is old, knows his team’s half life is less than a year and has already made $1B on his purchase of the Red’s at market value. There’s nothing more left than to win a ring (or reasonable facsimile thereof) and it won’t happen with David Bell. Don’t know the man but he has to be smarter than I am and realize this. I’m hopeful for a big management move.
I believe this was Williams’ decision — whether the family is the true focus of his reasoning is something only he knows. He was overseeing a culture change through the organization that appeared to be generating positive results.
The result, at least short-term, is going to be a vacuum of leadership and direction. If Castellini was briefed in August about Williams’ pending move, he certainly has at least done some thinking about what’s (make that who’s) next.
Well said, Tom. We know the decision makers are a little ahead of the curve in information but that’s about it. The important point is there is a vacuum to be filled. BTW, being only on this site for 2 months or so, I have enjoyed your commentary.
Mark Sheldon of MLB.com referred to Williams departure as “planned”; and we know from yesterday’s statement that Castellini has known it was coming or at the least likely for over a month. Given this, I am somewhat disappointed we weren’t told more about the future plan.
Perhaps there is an heir in waiting lined up at another organization still active in the playoffs?
I really on have two things that bothered me a great deal about Williams. Those are the way he handled Senzel and his service time but mostly David Bell. The biggest part of what hes’ done I liked.
No one should be surprised that a front office shake up was going to occur this offseason. A lot of money was spent last year and the team batting average was .212 with a DH hitting all year. Also add the fact that a lot of things are going on outside of baseball. A lot of teams are probably going to have front office cuts this offseason. The Indians rumor mill is that they are cutting salary and had to borrow money to meet payroll.
Dick Williams did what he had to do to make baseball relevant in Cincinnati again. he did it in a fairly short time for a small market team. i feel the biggest jump was from 2018 to 2019 when we went from a bad team to a mediocre team. the problem is we had to give up a ton of young talent to get Sonny Gray and eventually Bauer. the question is was it all worth it? a big part of me wishes we would have just held our noses for a couple of more years as fans and still had guys like Taylor Trammel, Jeter Downs, and Shed Long in the farm system. But the franchise was in really bad shape in 2017 and 2018. i felt like i was back in old riverfront stadium and the year was 1982 and 1983 again. i think he made the right choice to unload the farm system for some mild gratification for the fans.
the question is what is going to be the hook for reds fans in 2021? whether Bauer and Castellanos stays is irrelevant in my mind. the team as it is constructed right now is just not that interesting to me. We have seen what Senzel ,Garcia, Aquino, and Stepehnson can do now and i don’t think it will generate enough excitement for next year.
Not being argumentative but how can you say we know what those four can do when none of them except Senzel really got a chance this year, and he was on the IL a LOT. I think there is a lot to look forward to with those four, the most worrisome being Senzel’s being somewhat injury prone. The problem with Bell is that for most of this shortened season he kept platooning and putting guys in the lineup that should not have been taking up playing time from these guys(IE, Payton, Davidson, Ervin, Van Meter) and then Goodwin, who I just don’t think is going to pan out.
Overall, I think he did a good job towards moving organization into a more strategic & analytical approach. During his tenure some trades were beneficial (Castillo, Bauer, Gray), others weren’t so much (Bruce, Cueto, Chapman, Frazier). Bad contracts can hurt teams, specially small market teams, like those with Bailey and Votto, but that’s water under the bridge. Cannot blame him for the recent abysmal offensive performance by players expected to produce runs (Castellanos, Suarez and Moustakas), I still wonder what could have caused such a thing.
Big Bob escapes a lot of criticism that rightfully should be directed at him rather than Dick Williams (i.e. Bailey & Votto contracts; not moving away from Jocketty much sooner). Best wishes to DW in the business world.
David Bell was the one who needed to go, but Bob runs the Reds like a family hobby, not a business. Maybe Williams didn’t have the authority to fire Bell.
I was thinking that as a possibility. Maybe he wanted to and couldn’t then felt he had no other alternative being in a no win situation.
It makes sense that DW returns to the business world from where he came. His family has long been titans of the Cincinnati insurance world. DW, as CEO, guided the Reds to greater development of pitching which is a positive, and put more emphasis on analytics which is the current mode of baseball.
What’s next? Tampa Bay gets a lot of mentions here.
Can Cincinnati lure away from TB their Vice-President of Baseball Operations, Erik Neander? He pretty much runs the Baseball Ops department at TB and has for the last 4 years. After the 2019 season he was named ML Executive of the Year. He might repeat that this year. The only way to lure him away would be more money and more control than he has in TB. He is only 39 and is building something great in TB. That will be one tough nut to crack to get him interested in Cincinnati.
The next person in TB that might work would be Ohio native (Cleveland) Peter Bendix. Bendix is Vice President of Baseball Development and has been involved in all aspects of the Baseball Ops department there. However, Bendix might be more of a candidate for GM if Krall would get bumped up to President of Baseball Ops.
Neander would be a steal but Big Bob would have to open his wallet wide and surrender some/ a lot of authority over the Baseball Ops in Cincinnati. Remember Big Bob saying last year he comes into the front office meetings listens and then everything seemed like it had to run through him before being approved. That kind of system is going to limit a lot who the Reds can bring to Cincinnati to run the Baseball Ops department. So, Big Bob is going to have to take a step back or two and let the baseball people run the show. Not him. Or it will be more of the same again.
This is really a critical point in the franchise’s present and future. The Reds need to hit a home run on this selection and not let money or Big Bob’s ego get in the way of hiring a top notch caliber executive.
The unsettled situation with a new ballpark for the Rays and money offered by Big Bob could be the factors in getting Neander or Bendix to come to Cincy.
I think this is unfortunate. I like the most all the moves he made. On many of them, the players just didn’t pan out. For example, I believe everyone though Shogo would have batted better all season.
It was hard for Shogo to get at bats on the bench (looking at you, platoon-happy manager!)