When the Cincinnati Reds stumbled into Dan Straily on the waiver wire on April 1st, 2016, they didn’t just happen upon 191.1 innings of 3.76 ERA ball. They stumbled into the team control that came with him beyond that breakout season, and while the Reds opted against rolling the dice to see if he could repeat that output, they were able to cash in on it through the trade market.
That begat Luis Castillo, you’ll recall, and he’s only pitched his way into the team’s Hall of Fame in the years since.
The Reds have seemingly spent the last eon in rebuilding mode, and that’s just as much the case today as it was back in 2016.