As much as he may or may not deserve blame for unwillingness to make trades, this one is not Dan O'Brien's fault. According to some sources, he actually agreed to the trade I mentioned earlier, and so did everyone that had to agree to it, except Carl Lindner. Dan O'Brien, Ken Williams, and Ken Griffey Jr. all had agreed to this trade according to these sources, but Lindner refused to do it because he felt it may discourage his potential buyer of the team. Where there's smoke, there has to be fire IMO, so if this never happened, as O'Brien claimed, then why would the media continuously report the same thing? If they got it wrong, they would likely just ignore it and move on, but they keep talking about it.
So, do I think the Sox will get Griffey? No, but I think that the blame for that lies in the pocketbook of Carl Lindner rather than the past incompetence of Reds GMs.