A copy of the book “The MVP Machine” on his desk, Reds President of Baseball Operations Dick Williams sat down with The Athletic for more than a half-hour on Wednesday in his office at Great American Ball Park.



The Reds had concluded their sixth consecutive losing season just three days earlier, finishing a disappointing 75-87 in Williams’ third season running the team. Already in his team’s short offseason, he’d created a stir inside baseball circles, hiring Kyle Boddy, the founder of Driveline Baseball, as the team’s Director of Pitching Initiatives/Pitching Coordinator.



Boddy interviewed with several teams and reportedly had offers from the Cubs and Mets among others, but decided to join the Reds. Boddy is a central figure in “The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players,” a 2019 book by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik about the game’s player development...