Come on man -- look at the "added pieces" they've brought in since January 1 (source:
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/teams/.../transactions/)
Tommy Pham - 1 year contract
Hunter Stickland - 1 year contract
Donovan Solano - 1 year contract
Colin Moran - 1 year contract
This is garbage / dumpster diving. This is, in absolutely no way, an effort to win or compete in any meaningful sense. Ownership is offering precisely zero (0) market rate contracts to quality ballplayers in free agency. They're committing no money past this year to anyone. Every move they've made has been to cut long-term costs and add young, cheap prospects. It's the same nonsense we dealt with during the Lost Decade, where the club chased this fairy tale of a full team of 25 year olds, all making pre-arb money and winning a World Series on the budget of a used family sedan.
And the joke of all this is that the club isn't even willing to spend a bit of money to get better prospects. They could've undoubtedly got a better return by trading Winker straight up somewhere and not forcing a team to take on Suarez's salary -- but they didn't, because the real goal of the Winker trade was to get Suarez's contract off the books. They could've gotten literally anything for Wade Miley if they'd spent the $2M to pick up his option and then trade him, but they just cut the man and let him walk for no return to save a buck.
I don't get standing up for this business model. They're pissing on your head and offering to sell you a Reds-logo umbrella.