There are some things that never cease to amaze me.

The Cincinnati Reds’ decision to hire Bill Bavasi is the perfect recent example.

Bavasi, who was fired as general manager of the Seattle Mariners earlier this season, was added to the Reds’ baseball operations staff, coming on board as a “special assistant.”

The man has worked in baseball for more than half of his life, and oversaw a strong player development system in the Los Angeles Angels organization during his stint as GM during the 1990s.

His recent performance in Seattle, however, was arguably one of the least effective, inefficient tenures of any major executive in baseball history. From the Carlos Silva debacle to Jarrod Washburn and several other mediocre acquisitions, he was a lavish spender during his time with the Mariners, burying them into their current state— as one baseball insider said before the trade deadline, “they are an absolute mess.”

A mess that he helped make. The firing of Bavasi, who comes from a baseball family that helped enable his entrance into the industry, was a step in the right direction for the Mariners and their fans.

As I wrote at the time:

The Seattle Mariners on Monday afternoon fired their embattled general manager, Bill Bavasi.

Bavasi, who took over a promising franchise at the end of the 2003 season, has made a plethora of poor baseball-related decisions, some of which have crippled the organization and will set it back for at least a few years.

Although he has guided the club to only one .500 campaign and two 90-loss seasons in his tenure, it was the Mariners’ dismal showing over first few months and poor record that proved to be the last straw.

Headed into spring training, many within baseball had high expectations for Seattle, which added Erik Bedard and free agent right-hander Carlos Silva to its starting rotation.

The question, though, is why?

The Mariners’ 25-man roster was poor, and all preseason polls predicting a postseason run for the club were way off base.

How could one expect Bedard, just a single, injury prone pitcher, to make such a huge difference?

While Silva was one of the premier free agents on the market in a thin class of starting pitchers, he is a league average starter at best.

Which is why Bavasi’s decision to throw $48-million dollars at such an average pitcher entering the decline stages of his career is so puzzling—and concerning.

The team would have been wise to resist the temptation of spending so much money to lock up the veteran, who has yet to strike out more than 90 batters in a single season. Heck, if they waited, perhaps they could have pursued Kyle Loshe—8-2 with a 111 ERA+—for half the price instead.

Was anyone really surprised, though?

This is the same GM who spent $37-million on middle-of-the-rotation lefty Jarrod Washburn, at best a number three starter during his prime.

Bavasi has been the worst general manager in the game for some time. In fact, before he was fired today, there was a huge gap in baseball intelligence between GM number 30 and 29.

Quite frankly, the longtime baseball man did not understand the crucial concepts of how to run an efficient organization, becoming one of the game's most irresponsible spenders. Given a generous budget to work with, he has turned the Mariners into one of baseball’s worst teams during his five-year stint in Seattle. Instead of throwing hefty contracts at veterans or trading for players who are bound to underachieve— with Bavasi: Horacio Ramirez (trade to Atlanta for Rafael Soriano), Richie Sexson, Jose Vidro and Washburn, for example— compared to their paychecks, organizations must look for cheaper (usually more productive) alternatives.

The time has come for clubs to ignore throwing big money at aging veterans, when they can receive similar on-the-field results from youngsters entering the league, with some making near the league minimum.

…John McLaren, who was on the hot seat at the start of the month, has come under fire as well. The one person who is ultimately responsible for this team’s grave failures, however, is Bavasi. With the roster that he was given to work with, it would have taken a miracle for McLaren—even if he truly inspired the best out of his players to this point—to guide his club above the .500 mark.

Thus, the Mariners, whose $100-million-plus payroll has bought them the worst record (24-45) in the majors, turn the pages on a new chapter. With Bavasi gone, a real solution to competing again in the AL West is finally within reach, although the rebuilding process—essentially cleaning up his mess—will take a couple of years. If the club fired him this time last year, they would already have a head start. Still, the organization does deserve some credit for making the necessary move this afternoon, as obvious as it has been for a long time now.

Bavasi’s résumé as the top baseball operations exec in Seattle includes many other blunders as well, from trades to player development issues.

There is one tidbit, however, that he will not get to add to his not-so-illustrious LinkedIn profile. Since he was fired, he loses his opportunity to become the first general manager to have a 100-loss season with a payroll exceeding $100-million.

Rumor has it that a few years back, when a Mariners player was reading Moneyball on a team flight, an unnamed executive in the organization laughed at the book, saying, “What are you reading that #### for?”

While there is no guarantee the executive was Bavasi, who would be lucky to get another general manager job some day, I still wonder. Who is laughing now?

Bavasi will not have as much power in the decision-making process as he did as a GM, of course. Still, for a franchise like the Reds—who have a strong core of young talent and a bright future—adding someone who has turned a blind eye to advanced statistical analysis and with his track record may come back to bite them. To his credit, he has had some success in developing minor league prospects while with the Angels. However, Cincinnati needs to add more progressive thinkers, especially with Dusty Baker as manager and longtime GM Walt Jocketty running the show, to add to its baseball operations team.

Not someone like this.

The addition of Bavasi may end up doing more harm than good in the long run, which is not what the Reds need right now. As a mid-market team, the only way that they can sustain any level of success in the current economic state of the industry, even with revenue sharing, is to lock up their strong nucleus under the age of 25 and resist overpaying for mediocre free agents.

With Bavasi, that may be prove to be a difficult challenge, as the Washburns of the world always seem to strike his fancy. He just loves to spend millions on replacement-level production.

After his disastrous run in Seattle, it is a surprise to see him get work so quickly. After all, the man built a team with a plus-$100 million payroll—filled with aging position players on the decline—that is on pace for over 100 losses and has one of the most poorly constructed offenses, considering the financial cost, ever.

Jocketty, however, shed a different light in the Reds’ official press release, citing the 50-year-old Bavasi’s experience.

“We're excited Bill has joined our organization,” Jocketty said. "Over his career of more than 30 years, he has worked in almost every facet of baseball operations. We will benefit from his experience and insights."

At this point, though, that experience may be more of a crutch than an asset. He is behind the eight ball, to be blunt, in how to properly evaluate player performance at the major league level.