Dick Williams: rebuild message is getting through

ATHENS, Ohio – The fan had a question for Dick Williams. Why, he asked the Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations, had the Reds not pursued any offensive upgrades this offseason? Clearly improvements were needed.

Williams has come to expect such pointed critiques during his stops on the Reds Caravan like this one, at The Market on State here in Athens on Thursday. He was prepared with an answer so honest, it visibly stunned his neighbor on the dais, new Reds pitcher Drew Storen.

“Did you watch us pitch last year?” Williams responded. Storen raised his eyebrows and shared a laughing look with minor-league catcher Chris Okey, like someone in their fourth-grade class had just back-sassed the teacher.

Williams finished the answer diplomatically, pointing out that the offense rebounded nicely in the second half and that good health should make it reliable again in 2017. The pitching, however, needed help more desperately.

It was just about the only open critique of the Reds’ plan that Williams was offered during the 20-minute ask-and-answer session that also featured Storen, Okey and Reds legend Eric Davis. That’s not a coincidence, Williams thinks. The feedback he gets is that fans are starting to understand the purpose of the rebuild.

“It really started at Redsfest,” Williams said. “There was a real positive tone to the questions and the atmosphere. I think people are really seeing the light and feeling like they’re part of something.”

The questions lobbed at Williams on Thursday seemingly reflected that new appreciation for team-building strategy. One fan inquired about whether better value comes from selling off stars at the deadline versus in the offseason. (The answer: it depends.)

Another question, from a man near the front of the crowd of about 250, started more ominously. He’s a fan of Brandon Phillips, he said, and is glad the team’s numerous efforts to trade him have failed.

Williams prepared himself.

But then the fan took an abrupt turn. Clearly, Phillips is declining defensively, he said. Would the Reds make Jose Peraza the starter at second base and move Phillips to the outfield? (Williams' response: a very lawyerly no.)

“I haven’t had any of those confrontational questions,” said Williams, whose day began with three stops for radio interviews and one event at a middle school in Ashland, Ky. “It’s been a more positive frame of mind. I think people are excited to hear about what’s coming.”

Part of that is due to Williams’ persistent efforts to be transparent. It may be common sense to those in the game that a rebuild was necessary to the Reds – and those people arguably recognized that a year or so before the Reds did – but for the casual fan it can be an affront to competitiveness.

Williams has tried his best to explain the team’s thought process whenever possible. Rebuilds are painful and drive fans from the ballpark, but he wants to show them the roadmap back to contention.

He won’t take all the credit; an increased focus on the subject by the national media has done most of the heavy lifting.

“There’s a lot more media coverage on it now, a lot more national media coverage, a lot more talk of the value of going through cycles and the down cycles and the value of drafting,” he said. “That has certainly educated the fans and made them aware of these cycles. That doesn’t make it necessarily easier to go through. But I think it helps educate people. I think it helps them see that there is hope.”