1982 and 1983 weren't rebuidling years - it was simply poor farm system drafts, the inability to attact or use free-agency, while holding onto Concepcion and Bench and Driessen.
The trades of Seaver, Foster, & Griffey brought absolutely nothing in return.
Dick Wagner was going to show the world that Bob Howsam 1968 was right. Boy, did he show them.
Those Reds were also owned by the Williams Brothers who believed the Carl Lindner way of operating a baseball club.