True but the best teams are in the biggest cities.
This is true, but the top franchises over the past several seasons not only are willing to spend when necessary, but also have been great at developing prospects.
Examples:
1. Dodgers — They spent on game-changing players (Betts, Freeman) and potential game-changers (Trevor Bauer) as well as keeping their icon pitcher (Kershaw) around. But they also developed an ace in Walker Buehler, a potential ace in Julio Urias, Cody Bellinger, Will Smith, Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, etc. Plus turned Justin Turner from an afterthought earlier in his career into a key cog in their lineup over the past decade. Plus had the prospect package on their hands to get Trea Turner and Max Scherzer a couple years ago.
2. Astros — They’re who the Reds are mostly trying to emulate. Sure, they paid Justin Verlander great money after trading for him late in the 2017 season (for three highly ranked prospects). And they’ve spent good money. But most of their core was made up of young stars they developed (Altuve, Springer, Correa, Bregman). And importantly, they’ve continued to push newer prospects into the big-league club (e.g. Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Kyle Tucker), giving them the ability to lose Springer, Correa and now Verlander instead of continuing to pay big for them.
3. Braves — They’ve developed plenty of guys: Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Max Fried, Mike Soroka, Dansby Swanson. Yes, they did acquire essentially a fill-in outfield at the 2021 trade deadline, and yes, they also acquired Matt Olson and now Sean Murphy in trades. But they had the prospect packages to make that happen. And now their next wave of prospects (Michael Harris, Vaughn Grissom, Spencer Strider) is ready to supplement Acuna, Riley, Albies, Fried, Olson, Murphy, etc. And the Braves have smartly spent much of their money locking up their own guys early in their careers instead of losing them after 6 seasons.
Ideally, the Reds would emulate aspects of all three of these teams:
a) Extend the young players you believe in ASAP: Stephenson, Greene, Lodolo.
b) Have a first wave of prospects come up and become dangerous: De La Cruz, McLain, Steer, Williamson, Encarnacion-Strand, Stoudt, perhaps Barrero.
c) Supplement that core with smart trades and free-agent spending.
d) Have a second wave of guys continue to arrive to the majors to supplement the team and offset any losses: Noelvi Marte, Edwin Arroyo, Cam Collier, Chase Petty, Andrew Abbott, Connor Phillips.
e) Fill in any remaining deficiencies with smart free-agent signings.
Will it work? Who knows. But that should be the plan at this point.
It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …