The Reno Zephyrs will not be completely blown up despite the fact that the front office sent three prominent players packing before the trade deadline.

In three separate deals, the Zephyrs sent long-time closer David “Cheese” Chesney was to Amsterdam, shortstop Leon “Smooth” Brunelle was shipped to Florida and center fielder Dale Griffith was sent to Dayton. All three players were very popular with the fans and all three played a big part in the past success of the Zephyrs.

So, what is going on with this team? In baseball a team either has to be seriously contending for a title or reloading for next season. It is pure suicide to do anything in between. It is important to be aggressive and proactive at all times in this game and the Reno front office believes they are doing just that.

“We find ourselves in a tough spot this season with regards to our on field performance as well as our team finances,” Reno general manager Scott Maynor said while addressing the fans in a press conference announcing the three trades. “We have focused our efforts on shedding some payroll while trying to keep as much of our team’s core talent intact for next season. We are not ready to admit that our window of contention has completely closed but, we needed to face the reality of our current situation.”

The situation is that the Reno Zephyrs are 26.5 games out of first place in the highly competitive Desert Hills Division and 13.5 games out of the SL Wild Card race. Successful franchises build competitive major league rosters by improving on the margins while simultaneously building up their farm systems incrementally through the draft and well-timed trades of select veteran players. This type of strategy opposes the traditional, full-fledged, bottom-out, trade-everything-that-isn’t-nailed-down rebuild strategy. That appears to be the strategy that Reno is attempting. Ultimately circumstances play a large role in which path a team takes. If the Zephyrs were in contention this season, instead of basement dwelling, they would not be sellers at the trade deadline. What Reno is trying to accomplish is avoiding a full tear down for as long as possible. It was not that long ago that this team put up five straight 100-plus loss seasons. The bad taste of failure still lingers for the front office.

So, if all goes according to plan, this will be a reloading year. A few faces have changed, upgrades will hopefully come, and we may even see some more trades along the way, but the key is to never throw up that white flag and outright surrender.
These all seem like reasonable decisions based on the current situation. But just because they are reasonable doesn’t mean they aren’t risky. Humans are innately risk averse and afraid of putting our vulnerability on the line. The status quo, while not particularly fulfilling, can seem like an easier, softer, less scary, option.

However, history has shown that we fail far more from timidity than we do from over daring. Or to quote a little Latin: Fortes fortuna adiuvat. “Fortune favors the bold.”