Each Journey begins with a single step - The 80’s
January 12, 1981
Signed Larry Biittner as a free agent.
Before the strike marred 1981 season the Reds were once again slow to move on player transactions. The key off-season move was the Reds dipping their toe into the free agent market for the first time when they signed 35-year-old Larry Biittner, coming off a .249/.294/.319 season at Wrigley Field Larry was ill suited to play on the fast carpet of Riverfront and his bat was substandard to begin with. This move is the typical ill suited, poorly researched move that exemplified the Wagner era, just bad baseball acumen all around.
November 4, 1981
Traded Ken Griffey to the New York Yankees. Received a player to be named later and Brian Ryder (minors). The New York Yankees sent Freddie Toliver (December 9, 1981) to the Cincinnati Reds to complete the trade.
Following the strike-marred season the writing was on the wall; Ken Griffey was going to leave the Reds and if the team wanted anything for this 31 year old outfielder they’d have to get it before he walked. Again Dick Wagner’s poor judgment clouds a transaction, as he projects Paul Householder to replace Griffey and projects the young RH Toliver to produce for the Reds in the future. He was wrong on both counts, as Toliver only threw 10 innings as a Red and Householders line of .211/.265/.326 was a pitiful display of a player overmatched. His on base percentage alone was 105 points lower then Griffey’s 1981 total.
December 6, 1982
Released Larry Biittner.
December 16, 1982
Traded Tom Seaver to the New York Mets. Received Charlie Puleo, Lloyd McClendon, and Jason Felice (minors).
After years of existence in an atmosphere that often financially benefited the rich teams the Reds had never lost 100 games, in fact of the original 16 teams that had dominated the baseball landscape during the first half of the 20th century only the Reds and Giants had not lost 100 games in a season as the 1982 campaign began. The Reds lost 101 in 1982 and the Giants would join the group three seasons later in 1985. Following the 1982 season the two above transactions stated two failures to Reds fans. One - Tom Seaver never brought the Reds to the top again, we had hoped and we had dreamt of it, but it never was to be. Two - Larry Biittner was a big mistake and thus throughout the Reds front office it meant that signing free agents was a big mistake.
December 6, 1983
Purchased Tony Perez from the Philadelphia Phillies.
December 7, 1983
Signed Dave Parker as a free agent.
In an attempt to legitimize the team the Reds fired Wagner in the middle of the 1983 season and welcomed back his mentor Bob Howsam with open arms. Perhaps the worst move Howsam made on his return was hiring Vern Rapp on October, 5th. However he quickly fixed part of the teams problems (Lack of power) when he signed fan favorite Tony Perez to fill in here and there and Cincinnati native Dave Parker. Both had power, both had charisma and both of those aspects of the game were sorely missing when one scanned the Reds dugout.
November 12, 1984
Sold Brad Lesley to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Once again the appearance of Howsam in the Front Office slowed down moves prior to the sorting out of the market that occurs after the free agents flood the marketplace. The Lesley departure marks the rise of the franchises fortunes. Often time’s poor teams are marked by the popularity of players with little chance of success, and often this popularity is based on characteristics that are more often based on the player being a character rather than having character (or talent). The 1985 Reds improved 19 wins over the 1984 club.
December 11, 1985
Traded Gary Redus and Tom Hume to the Philadelphia Phillies. Received John Denny and Jeff Gray.
December 19, 1985
Traded Jay Tibbs, Andy McGaffigan, John Stuper, and Dann Bilardello to the Montreal Expos. Received Bill Gullickson and Sal Butera.
The 1985 Reds were fourth to last in the league in ERA and gave up 131 home runs (9th in a 12 team league) Jay Tibbs had 34 starts and the Reds staff just wasn’t good enough to get them over the top. Reds GM Bill Bergesch made these deals, and he spent a good portion of his time as the Reds GM trying to find pitching, the next season the Reds would have an even worse team ERA (3.92) and would win three less games then they did in 1985.
November 11, 1986
Released Pete Rose.
Once and all we were shown that everyone has an end in this game. Rose finally hangs them up, a great player he was, and that’s not a debate on any level. However lets’ see what he did in 1986 .219/.316/.270/.586, that’s in 237 at bats. No offense to the Hit King, but that could have been handled better.
November 6, 1987
Traded Ted Power and Kurt Stillwell to the Kansas City Royals. Received Danny Jackson and Angel Salazar.
The Power of Tradition chooses Barry Larkin. Good choice. This is the beginning of an era and era that would bring one World Series championship… good times. Not only was the choice to keep Larkin the right one but Danny Jackson was the best Reds pitcher in the late 80’s and if it wasn’t for Oral’s massive 1988 season Jackson might have won the Cy Young (something no Red has ever done) BTW did you know that Kurt Stillwell’s dad Ron was a MLB player? You do now.
October 7, 1988
Released Dave Concepcion.
After Larkin was chosen Davey was around to work with him alone for a year, though he wanted to play more the Reds felt it was time to move along. Davey’s departure was officially the end of the Big Red Machine era, it was sad to see him go and it wasn’t lost on my brother who said that Davey had been the Reds SS from the time he was 2 years old until he was a sophomore in college. Now that’s a string of seasons.
December 6, 1989
Traded John Franco and Don Brown (minors) to the New York Mets. Received Randy Myers and Kip Gross.
December 12, 1989
Traded Tim Leary and Van Snider to the New York Yankees. Received Hal Morris and Rodney Imes (minors).
Bob Quinn had been the office for almost 2 months when he started collecting players from the town that his former job was located in. Crafty LH tosser John Franco was traded for flamethrower Randy Meyers, a man that favored fatigues and stomping around the mound when pitching. From his former employers he grabbed Hal Morris a LH swinger with dancing feet in the box. Quinn must have been scared by the over 600 plate appearances that Todd Benzinger had eaten up for the Reds in 1989. Both these moves would play major roles in getting the Reds to the top the next season and to this day both are still mentioned when the Reds make trades that involve projecting what a club really needs for the upcoming season.