"Why aren't we the Brewers?"

[MeleMouth]

Interesting article in the Athletic today about how the Reds fail to compete year after year.

Summary: under guidelines set by ownership, they don't trade their veterans for prospects, actually do trade prospects for so-so players when they think they have a chance at making the playoffs, and sign Tier 3 and Tier 4 free agents. Further, when they do break from their patterns, they make mistakes, such as misses in free agency and the players they got in return for Sonny Gray and Luis Castillo. Hiring is often insular. Sound familiar?

A couple of quotes.

 

"In addition, the Brewers maintain an elite farm system while consistently rebuilding on the fly and ignoring criticism for trading players such as Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta."

"For more than a decade, Castellini has mostly refused to entertain those kinds of trades, even when his baseball people advised him it was the only way for small-market teams to prosper."

 

"The Reds execs would dust off their presentation, update it and make their annual case to retool.

“'Bob would hear it,' the official said. 'But he would never let us do it.'”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7622943/2026/09/24/cincinnati-reds-castellini-ownership-front-office/

[Vanimal46]

Not even Tito Francona, a manager that I would guess a lot of fans have in their top 3 managers over the last 20 years, can overcome poor ownership. 

[Mike Sixel]

10 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

Interesting article in the Athletic today about how the Reds fail to compete year after year.

Summary: under guidelines set by ownership, they don't trade their veterans for prospects, actually do trade prospects for so-so players when they think they have a chance at making the playoffs, and sign Tier 3 and Tier 4 free agents. Further, when they do break from their patterns, they make mistakes, such as misses in free agency and the players they got in return for Sonny Gray and Luis Castillo. Hiring is often insular. Sound familiar?

A couple of quotes.

 

"In addition, the Brewers maintain an elite farm system while consistently rebuilding on the fly and ignoring criticism for trading players such as Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta."

"For more than a decade, Castellini has mostly refused to entertain those kinds of trades, even when his baseball people advised him it was the only way for small-market teams to prosper."

 

"The Reds execs would dust off their presentation, update it and make their annual case to retool.

“'Bob would hear it,' the official said. 'But he would never let us do it.'”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7622943/2026/09/24/cincinnati-reds-castellini-ownership-front-office/

Replace "Reds" with Twins....I assume is your point? Which is correct.

[MeleMouth]

Just now, Mike Sixel said:

Replace "Reds" with Twins....I assume is your point? Which is correct.

Looking at an independent third party can take a lot of the emotion out of a discussion, so that it's easier to focus on what's works and doesn't work instead of what you like and dislike.