The Reds have flipped the script on their status as a small-market rebuilding team in the last two offseasons, trading prospects for major-league help in the short term, and even signing big-ticket free agents to long-term deals, all in an attempt to contend sooner than the standard-issue rebuilding would have achieved. It didn’t work last year, as the team went 75-87 — an improvement of eight wins over the previous season but only enough to get them from last place in the NL Central to fourth, and they were still outscored on the season by 10 runs. They’ve doubled down on the approach since then, trading their best prospect, Taylor Trammell, in the summer after trying and failing to change his swing, and now signing four major-league free agents (one from NPB) this winter. It still doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough; this team is better, but they don’t look like they’re 14 wins better — that would put them at 89-73, the record of the...