Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman still Reds as deadline passes

When you trade two of your starting pitchers for five players all of whom are sent to the minors, it sort of shouts: Rebuild. Reds manager Walt Jocketty prefers not to label what the Reds did at the trade deadline that way.

"The best word or term I saw was from (Detroit GM) Dave Dombrowski: 'reboot,' " Jocketty said. "That's kind of what we're doing. We're rebooting or retooling. It's not a rebuild."

But Jocketty admitted what the Reds did was more geared toward the long haul without completely writing off next year, and he wouldn't say the Reds can contend in 2016 with the roster as it sits.

"It depends on what else we do," Jocketty said. "We feel right now it gives us a chance to build a better club. We have to get some additional pieces. But we want to make sure we're very competitive.

"Part of the reason for getting some of the players we did and drafting and developing the players we have is to be gearing up for '17 and '18.

"But '16 is still a year we don't want to lose of sight of."

The 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline Friday passed without the Reds making a move. The fact that they kept Jay Bruce and Aroldis Chapman, both of whom they listened to offers on, tells you they decided against completely tearing things up.

Bruce, one of the player's whose name was on rumor mill, was relieved when the clock stuck 4:00.

Catcher Brayan Pena came over and hugged Bruce.

"Still together," Pena said.

"For two more months at least," Bruce said.

In the other end of the clubhouse, Chapman sat looking at his phone. Jim Day from Fox Sports Ohio asked Chapman in Spanish – with the help of a cheat sheet – if he was happy to still be a Red.

"Si," Chapman said.

The Reds did make two moves in the days leading up to the deadline. They traded Mike Leake to San Francisco for minor league right-hander Keury Mella and minor league infielder Adam Duvall late Thursday night, and they traded Johnny Cueto to Kansas City for left-handed pitching prospects Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed on Sunday.

Bruce was reportedly in a deal with the New York Mets centered around Zack Wheeler, a right-hander coming off Tommy John surgery. That trade apparently fell apart early Friday afternoon.

Jocketty would not comment on how close the Reds came to dealing Chapman or Bruce.

"There was a lot of interest in both players," Jocketty said. "We weren't necessarily interested in moving them. The guys we were most interested in talking about were the potential free agents. That's what we ended up doing."

Bruce has said all along that he wanted to stay.

"It's nice that other teams are interested in you," Bruce said. "But on the other hand, you grow up in this organization. This is all I know. This is like family to me."

There was a brief storm because Bruce was not in the lineup for Friday's game.

"A scheduled day off," Reds manager Bryan Price.

Bruce would have been OK with going.

"It's bittersweet," he said. "There are a lot of teams that want to add you to try to make the playoffs, but Cincinnati is home to me."

The Arizona Diamondbacks tried to get Chapman, but the Reds reportedly were asked too much. Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted that several other teams, including Houston, talked with the Reds about Chapman.

Was anything close?

"Not really," Jocketty said. "There were a couple of things that could have gone either way. In the end, we didn't think the value was there."

Friday was the non-waiver deadline. Players like Marlon Byrd, Brayan Pena and Skip Schumaker, veteran free agents-to-be, would likely pass through waivers, so they still can be traded.

"We'll have to wait and see," Jocketty said. "I would have thought there were other guys who would have gotten some interest."

The deadline was a new experience for Jocketty. He's used to adding players at the big league level at the deadline.

"This is really the first time in my career," Jocketty said. "It was different. It was a different challenge. It was actually fun to do. We got a chance to look at players from other organizations and the depth of talent. We got some good, young talent."

Of the players the Reds added four were pitchers, even though the Reds' top prospects are mostly pitchers.

"We always try to build our organization with pitching," Jocketty said. "We focused on that. We were looking for some position players. There were probably some we would done deals on if they would have traded us what we asking for."

"Offense is pretty hard to get. That's why eventually we hope if we stockpile enough pitching, we'll have enough to pursue offense at some point."