Cincinnati Reds fans were optimistic when Bob Castellini peeled out of the Cardinals ownership group and bought control of the Cincinnati Reds in 2006.
They hoped he would do for the Reds what Bill DeWitt Jr. did for the Cardinals after rescuing the team from the Anheuser-Busch’s indifferent ownership.
“We’re buying the Reds to win,” Castellini pronounced. “Anything else is unacceptable.”
So the performance of his ownership group has been unacceptable.
This regime enjoyed a good start while earning postseason berths in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Former Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty seemed capable of reprising his success in the STL.
But the Reds have been back to the playoffs just once since ’13 and now they are undergoing a painful retooling.
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During the offseason they traded pitcher Sonny Gray, outfielder Jesse Winker, third baseman Eugenio Suarez and reliever Amir Garrett while slashing payroll and adding young talent.
Bob’s son Phil Castellini, the Reds CEO, fueled further fan unrest with dismissive remarks during an interview on WLW radio.
When asked why a fan should maintain trust in him, this is what he said:
“Well, where are you going to go? Let's start there. I mean, sell the team to who? That's the other thing -- you want to have this debate? If you want to look at what would you do with this team to have it be more profitable, make more money, compete more in the current economic system that this game exists? It would be to pick it up and move it somewhere else.
“And so be careful what you ask for. I think we're doing the best we can do with the resources that we have. We're no more pleased with the results than the fans. I'm not sitting here saying anybody should be happy. I'm not polishing trophies in the office right now, and that's what we're here to do. But the bottom line is -- and I do think we've had to shift the discipline. We've tried a lot of things that didn't work. And they came this close to working and didn't. Nobody's got to tell me it didn't work. So I think we've learned from those things. And trust me, [general manager] Nick [Krall], he is a guy on a mission. And he is a bull in a china shop that has his way to do it and that way's to grow your own and he's doing just that.”
Those remarks did not play well, especially after the Reds took a 10-5 throat shot from the Cleveland Guardians in their home opener. So the team issued this statement attributed to Phil Castellini:
“I apologize to Reds fans and regret the comments that I made earlier today. We love this city, we love this team and we love our fans. I understand how our fans feel and I am sorry.”
The Reds' ongoing failure is one more example of why Cardinals fans should not take their ownership group for granted. DeWitt Jr. remains an outlier among mid-market owners as he aims for perennial contention.
TALKIN’ BASEBALL
Here is what folks are writing about Our National Pastime:
David Roth, The Defector: “Opening Day is a big deal in Cincinnati, even and perhaps especially when it promises to be something like the highlight of the team’s season. The Reds are, as they have been for the last several decades, either a team stuck in the grim limbo between an unthrilling recent past and a potentially promising future, or a team built specifically for that endless middling present. They have made some feints towards doing the things and spending the money necessary to compete in the National League Central, and then backed off of them. The team spent this recent offseason, before and after the lockout, furiously jettisoning every veteran they could, even when getting off an undesirable contract meant adding a young All-Star to the deal. But, again, the Reds aren’t quite tanking. They brought Hunter Greene north with them from Spring Training and the former second overall pick was electric in a successful MLB debut; Nick Lodolo, a very different but similarly promising pitching prospect, will make his debut this week as well. It is difficult, as it has often been difficult, to see quite what the Reds are going for, although if it was revealed that owner Bob Castellini had placed a 10-figure bet on his team winning exactly 78 games it would honestly explain a lot.”
Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Prospectus: “Mark Belko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just published an article analyzing the state of the Pirates’ finances, and it isn’t exactly pretty. Bob Nutting and co. are up to their old tricks, running the third-lowest payroll in the league and entertaining trade offers on their best player Bryan Reynolds, because they have no reason to think the team will be good while he’s under cost control. Belko spoke with the team and they argued that their payrolls are tied to previous year’s attendance and concession revenue, which if it were true sounds like a downward spiral if ever I’ve heard one . . . If anything, this is even worse than it looks. That third-lowest payroll was actually the lowest a week ago, before the Pirates signed Ke’Bryan Hayes to a team-friendly extension. We’re talking about a roster where not one player was getting paid more than human pitching machine Jordan Lyles. The best part? To get there the team actually front-loaded the money, paying him $10 million each of the next two years . . . This was done in part because of new restrictions on receiving revenue sharing in the recent CBA. I know you have to spend money to make money, but I’m not sure this was the original intent of the proverb.”
Mike Axisa, CBSSports.com: “The good start to the regular season comes after an offseason in which the Yankees passed on all the big names, and instead patched holes with short-term commitments. (Anthony) Rizzo was brought back on a two-year deal to play first, and Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa were brought in to shake up the left side of the infield. The Yankees also went defense-heavy behind the plate in the post-Gary Sanchez era. In doing so, the Yankees passed on one of the best free-agent classes in recent memory. They were connected to Carlos Correa and Freddie Freeman throughout the winter, though GM Brian Cashman confirmed Monday that the Yankees never did make either player an official offer. Many times statements like this come down to semantics. ‘We didn't put a piece of paper in front of them to sign, though we talked terms and knew what it would take.; That kind of thing. Still, Yankees fans don't want to hear their team didn't bother to make an offer to two of the game's best players. They just want the best players.”
Ben Lindbergh, The Ringer: “It would’ve been enough for the same old major league baseball players to be back. This MLB campaign came so close to being drastically curtailed or even lost entirely to an extended lockout that the sight of the sport’s established superstars—at least the ones without bad wrists or knees or shoulders —would have sufficed for most fans in the early stages of the 2022 regular season. Trout and Ohtani; Soto and Vladito; Scherzer and Verlander; Mookie and Turner; Harper and Judge; Franco and Ramírez; Wheeler and Woodruff; Buxton and Correa; Cole and Buehler; Bieber and Burnes. Those and other marquee major leaguers returned to action in or right after last week’s season openers, and their presence seemed extra sweet because Opening Day was delayed by only one week instead of months or more. But Week 1 of the MLB season has had so much more in store. Correa’s replacement in Houston, Jeremy Peña, hit his first major league homer while his proud parents laughed and cried on camera. The Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., the Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez, and the Phillies’ Bryson Stott roped doubles to left for their first or second MLB hits. Reds starter Hunter Greene, the 22-year-old righty with the fabled fastball, threw five pitches 101 miles per hour or faster in a single start, a feat only four starting pitchers—Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Nathan Eovaldi, and Verlander—had accomplished previously in the pitch-tracking era. The Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki pulled a ball into the bleachers at Wrigley, the Giants’ Heliot Ramos had a two-hit debut, and the Tigers’ Spencer Torkelson … well, he doesn’t have a hit yet, but he made a diving catch? Meanwhile, the Guardians’ Steven Kwan has owned the season so far by reaching base a record 15 times in his first four career games, highlighted by a 5-for-5 Sunday.”
MEGAPHONE
“To be a cornerstone player for the Pirates means a lot to me. I feel like we have a lot of talent in the minor leagues and we're doing something special here.”
Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, on his eight-year, $70 million contract.