Reds President of Baseball Operations & GM Walt Jocketty yesterday "ceded" the GM position to Assistant GM Dick Williams and "will give up power" in the baseball operations department completely following the '16 season, according to C. Trent Rosecrans of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Jocketty, who will begin his 22nd season in charge of a team and 42nd overall in baseball, said that he is "in the process of working out" a two-year contract beyond '16 to "serve the team in an advisory role" to Reds President & CEO Bob Castellini. He said that he hopes to "stay involved with the franchise beyond that." Jocketty: "We thought this was the right time to transition Dick into the general manager. He's been with us 10 years. We've been kind of grooming him for that position. It made sense to do it now, right before the General Managers Meetings and the Winter Meetings to get him in place for where he'll have even greater involvement with clubs and in trade discussions and also with agents regarding free agents." Williams, the son of Reds Chair Joe Williams, said that the team "will grow its analytics department" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 11/5). USA Today’s Bob Nightengale said Williams has "pretty much been Walt Jocketty's right-hand man since he got to Cincinnati, following him everywhere." Nightengale: "The plan is just stay the course. Walt Jocketty will still be right over his shoulder, helping him out in different moves, and we will see what happens after that. I still think this is Walt Jocketty's team in 2016, but certainly Dick’s going to take over and be that guy, beginning now in the next five or six years” (“MLB Tonight,” MLB Network, 11/5).
TIME IS RIGHT: In Cincinnati, Paul Daugherty writes, "It's a good shift for a team that's in a bad way. Full credit to Jocketty, for the work he did to help the Reds reach October three times in a four-year period. But the scouting, drafting and developing has been less adroit, a fact that became grimly obvious in September." Williams "faces a mountainous job." The Reds are "cash-strapped and tied to expensive, long-term contracts." Daugherty: "The transition isn't an admission from the club that 2016 begins a major re-do. That's obvious. What's also obvious is, Jocketty is 64 and sunset-ing. The idea of a major overhaul was not something he relished, or the club believed was in its best interests" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 11/5).
