Reds make Dick Williams GM

The Reds have promoted assistant GM Dick Williams to GM. Walt Jocketty, who had previously been president of baseball operations and GM, will now just be president of baseball operations.

Williams is, obviously, not this guy, but a longtime Reds exec who has also worked in the Yankees organization. I'm guessing this move won't change all that much about the way the Reds are run (although the fact that the Reds promoted Williams, and not special assistant Kevin Towers, to the GM position is noteworthy). It's just that we'll be reading more quotes from Williams than we used to. As FanGraphs' Dave Cameron recently pointed out, the GM title doesn't mean what it once did, as GMs increasingly are beneath bigger-name execs on the organizational ladder. (Think of GM Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein in Chicago, or GM Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles.) Teams increasingly understand the value of a good front office, and having two titles helps them retain talent.

In any case, the Reds weren't expected to be movers and shakers this offseason, and Williams' promotion won't change that. But if you start to see his name appearing in articles about the NL Central, you'll know why.