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Big news breaking on this Wednesday morning, as the Reds have announced that Dick Williams will no longer be serving as President of Baseball Operations for the team.
Dick Williams resigns as Reds' President of Baseball Operations pic.twitter.com/Fi2PtURsRI
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) October 7, 2020
Nick Krall will continue in his position as general manager.
The news comes as a surprise, although it seems as though it’s not as out of the blue as it seems. C. Trent Rosecrans has more information on the decision over at the Athletic, including the fact that Williams approached Bob Castellini in August about the possibility of moving on from the team at season’s end.
The decision comes after the most successful Reds season in seven years. Williams was the chief architect of the last several Reds rosters, including the one that just made the postseason for the first time in seven seasons. Williams took over as Walt Jocketty’s right-hand man back in 2016, before stepping into Jocketty’s spot at the end of the 2016 season.
Now, after only four seasons at the helm, Williams will move on, citing family reasons as the main reason. He has four children, and has decided now is the time to focus on spending more time with them while transitioning to a leadership role with his family’s business, North American Properties.
Williams’s moves have set the foundation of this Reds team for at least a few years to come, as we’ve noted since the end of the Reds 2020 season. Now, they’ll have to find someone else to chart the way forward. For now, Nick Krall will remain in his position as general manager, though there’s always the possibility that he’s promoted. In the statement, Castellini notes, “We are going to take a closer look at the structure of our baseball operations before making any decisions about replacing [Williams].”
So, there were already plenty of decisions for the Reds to make about their team on the diamond, to augment their postseason run and ensure it wouldn’t again end after 22 scoreless postseason innings. Now, it appears, they’ll have to first answer who is going to make those final decisions.