Wittenmyer & Williams: How trade deadline snoozer bodes for Cincinnati Reds future

Welcome to Wittenmyer & Williams – a point/counterpoint column from Enquirer Reds reporter Gordon Wittenmyer and sports columnist Jason Williams. Each week the longtime friends, reunited after covering baseball together in Minnesota earlier in their careers, pick a hot baseball – or sometimes, non-baseball – topic and debate it.

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Wittenmyer: Hey, man, I just woke up after this snoozer of a trade deadline for the Reds. Sorry if I dozed off during all that quiet time outside the Reds' war room. You’re the guy who’s been in Cincinnati all these years. Why aren’t they adding when they have a team that can do something this year?

Williams: Because they finally have a plan and they’re sticking to it. They held tight with their top prospects, and that bodes well for the future. I’ve said it before, and apparently, you didn’t listen: This season is a bonus. They can contend in this weak division with the team they have. Keep ahold of the prospects and let them continue to grow. Let this young team stick together and get the experience of playing relevant baseball in August and September. Maybe they make the playoffs. But let’s be honest, in order for them to “go for it” – as in going for a World Series title – they were going to have to give up the farm.

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Wittenmyer: That’s not a farm that you’re talking about giving up. It’s Noah’s friggin’ Ark. They’ve got two of everything. The best organizations make the right choices when they’ve got this much depth, regarding who to keep and who to use in trades when moments like this arrive. There’s no such thing as a chance to contend being a bonus. When they come along, you have to seize them. Maybe standing pat is OK in this division, but this is a team that needed a splash at the deadline.

Williams: Splash? They were in first place at the deadline. They have one of the best team ERAs in the majors since the All-Star break.

Wittenmyer: And one of the worst in baseball for the 3½ months before that.

Williams: Isn’t this about what’s happening now and in the future?

Wittenmyer: Yeah, now, as in the trade deadline. As in they should’ve added something for the future of this season.

Williams: I know you’re still new to town. But they added something to the future by trading for top prospects in spring training and at the deadline last year. I don’t buy this notion of you have to do something just to do something and appease Twitter. Or that you need to veer from a plan that took years to finally go all in on. Sure, make a trade, but don’t mortgage the future. The Reds didn’t do that. And this notion of having two of everything. Seriously? You know not everyone is going to pan out.

Wittenmyer: You’re making my point for me. That’s why prospects are acquired, as much for a possible future with your team as they are for possible trades. I might be new to town, but I know what I see and I know how a long baseball season works. And I know these opportunities don’t come along often no matter how good you are or how smart your organization is.

Williams: I’ll look forward to revisiting this conversation in six or seven weeks. I’ll be telling you: “I told you so.” Anyway, the Reds did make a move. It wasn’t a splash, but they added a depth piece to an overworked bullpen. With some of the pitchers coming back from the injured list soon, that’s enough for this season.

Wittenmyer: Maybe that’s enough if you’re covering Carl Pohlad’s team in 2000, former Twins boy.

Williams: Come on, man. The Castellinis aren’t even that cheap. I really don’t think this was about payroll. It was about not overpaying in young talent and sticking to a plan that can work for years to come and build toward being a serious World Series contender when these young guys all grow up.

Wittenmyer: I like to think it had nothing to do with payroll, but it sure feels like the player capital was there to compete with anybody. And I have a hard time believing that standing pat was the best path to October.

Williams: Do you really think you would have improved the talent level of the club that much?

Wittenmyer: Assuming Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo come back healthy in the next month, that’s a good point.

Williams: Oh, you finally agree with me.

Wittenmyer: Not so fast, smart guy. We can certainly agree on the talent level of this team. But have you seen some of the birth dates and service-time levels? They’ve got guys on this team born after Joey Votto was drafted. That’s a big risk for a team staring at a pennant drive, much less trying to win in October.

Williams: There are a lot bigger risks than that.

Wittenmyer: Yeah, like you wearing that shirt in public.

Contact Gordon by email at gwittenmyer@enquirer.com or on Twitter @GDubMLB. Reach Jason at jwilliams@enquirer.com or @jwilliamscincy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How MLB trade deadline snoozer bodes for Cincinnati Reds playoff hopes