“We had some really good teams there for a while,” General Manager Dick Williams said. “The most painful was 2012 — we had the Giants 2-0, we came back here, we only had to win one of three, and we let ’em win all three, and then they got the banner that year. That was as close as you could have gotten.

“But for the fans,” he continued, “it’s always a new year. Whether you win or lose, they’re always looking forward. Had we won one back then, we’d still be trying to prove ourselves right now. The key is just to get out there, have fun, get these young guys up and think positive.”

That has been a challenge for fans of the Reds, a team that has traded eight major contributors since the 2013 playoffs: Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman, Johnny Cueto, Todd Frazier, Mat Latos, Mike Leake, Brandon Phillips and Alfredo Simon. Attendance has fallen — only Miami drew smaller crowds among National League teams last season — and Williams can relate to the Reds’ fans.

He is a Cincinnati native whose father was once a part owner of the team. As a boy, Williams appeared with the slugger George Foster in a 1970s television ad for Bat Day at Riverfront Stadium. This is Williams’s second season as the general manager after he served as an assistant to Walt Jocketty, who is now an executive adviser. Adding pieces to a winning team, Williams said, is more fun than trying to build the next one.

“Now we’re just going to have to do it again,” he said. “You have to get excited about the guys that are just starting their careers, and hopefully get them to become the next version of those guys. The biggest challenge is just making sure you’re communicating to the fans what’s happening and keep them engaged. You can’t really talk to kids about arbitration and cost of free agency and stuff like that. They just have their favorite players, and that’s who they want to see play.”