Source: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images North America
2. Cincinnati Reds
With the disaster that was the failed Aroldis Chapman trade, the Reds had one of the most disappointing weeks of any team in all of baseball. It was clear just a month into last season that the Reds were not good enough and were in desperate need of rebuilding. After ending up in last place in the loaded National League Central, the Reds finally accepted their fate and made all of their useful players available. Going into this year’s Winter Meetings, Chapman was obviously the most desirable piece, as well as the most likely to be traded.
The Reds went into the Winter Meetings with a strong plan, and it seemed they were ready to capitalize on that opportunity before the Meetings even started. On Sunday afternoon/evening, the Reds and Dodgers began trade talks on a deal that would bring Chapman to Southern California. Early Monday morning it looked like the deal was as good as done. By mid-afternoon, the deal had still yet to completed and there was news of some sort of snag.
By Monday evening, the true details of what occurred had come out. The Dodgers basically backed out of the deal once knowledge of a recent domestic incident involving Chapman came to light. For the Reds, this was the ultimate disaster. Their #1 trade piece was suddenly, and almost completely, untradable given the impending MLB investigation into the incident. Beyond that, the Reds have yet to make progress in trades involving their other potential trade pieces, such as Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, and Brandon Phillips.
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