Cincinnati Reds: Is Dick Williams’ resignation purely for personal reasons?

Did Dick Williams step down as Reds President of Baseball Operations purely for personal reasons, or is there more to it?

After 15 years with the Cincinnati Reds organization, Dick Williams is walking away from the organization. While he stated that his decision to step away was made in order to  spend more time with his family, the timing just doesn’t sit right. I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibilities that Williams may have walked away because of ownership’s inability to spend money on talent.

This offseason was the first time in recent memory that the Reds made some real offseason moves. The team was able to sign Nick Castellanos, Shogo Akiyama, and made the biggest free agent signing in team history by signing Mike Moustakas to a four-year/$64M contract.

It took Bob Castellini 14 years to spend big money on free agents and when he finally did, there was a 60-game season and no in-stadium revenue. Dick Williams has never seemed like one who was unwilling to bring in talent and now, just one week after the Reds were eliminated from the postseason, Williams resigned. Williams even spoke to the Cincinnati Enquirer about next year:

"“I foresee this staff coming back. I do. What we went through as a group and the way they stepped up and prepared these guys, I think they deserve every chance to come back. We just ended the season yesterday. Of course, I have to sit down with (owner) Bob (Castellini) and some of the other guys and sit down with David, but this was a year they should be proud of. I think, right now, we see that group coming back.”"

Nothing from that quote, which was taken last week, indicates that Williams was walking away. The fact that Williams said he needed to sit down with Castellini suggests to me that this wasn’t a decision he had thought about for a long time.

Bob Castellini has been rumored to be more involved in the baseball decisions for years. In an article by Chad Dotson in 2018 for cincinnatimagazine.com, he put forward the idea of Castellini blocking potential trades of Matt Harvey and Billy Hamilton.

The Reds are slim on depth up the middle, and with no expanded playoffs next year and Trevor Bauer set to become one of the most sought-after free agents on the market, the Cincinnati Reds would need to spend real money to compete again next year.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, before the signing of Moustakas last December, the highest-paid position player the Reds had ever brought to the Queen City via free agency was Ryan Ludwick on a two-year/$15M deal.

Williams resignation could be in regards to the future of manager David Bell as well. Dick Williams went through a very deep vetting process to bring in a new manager two years ago and Bell’s strategy this year was unpopular to some. However, Williams never seemed to show signs of wanting to move on from Bell and showed confidence in him as well.

Given Bob Castellini’s track record of spending money, or lack thereof, I have a hard time believing that Williams abrupt resignation was strictly for personal reasons. Regardless, I wish Dick Williams well in his future endeavors. While he failed to bring a winner to Cincinnati, Williams was responsible for the trades that brought the likes of Eugenio Suárez and Sonny Gray to town.