01-16-2006, 10:14 AM
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#69 (permalink)
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Sleepy Head
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Wow, pan, this has got to have you worried, if not tick you off:
Quote:
Reds focusing on single-year pacts
By Marc Lancaster
Post staff reporter
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The Reds entered this offseason with a formidable list of players eligible for salary arbitration.
Many of the nine men in that group could be considered building blocks for a franchise lacking in young talent, and the Reds engaged several of those players' agents in discussions about multi-year contracts. So far, they have locked up a pair of those players, with catcher Jason LaRue and utilityman Ryan Freel signing two-year deals shortly before Christmas.
That will be the extent of the longer-term contracts for the time being.
After backup catcher Javier Valentin signed for $1.15 million and outfielder Wily Mo Pena for $1.25 million Sunday, Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said negotiations for the four remaining arbitration-eligible players - Adam Dunn, Aaron Harang, Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez - are focused on 2006 alone.
"We have had some multi-year discussions," O'Brien said. "But based on where we're at today, for instance with Mr. Harang, he and his agent prefer to address '06 right now and make that the priority, and then afterwards we can look at the possibility of a multi-year. And we're fine with that approach."
It's one the Reds will have to take with all four, even though they would have preferred to make a longer commitment to at least some of them.
Dunn certainly was among that group. O'Brien said in December that he hoped to initiate talks with the slugger's agent after the winter meetings, but no substantive progress was made.
"We had some preliminary discussion," O'Brien said of Dunn's situation. "But with the clock ticking here, it was decided that the best thing to do was to focus on '06 for the moment and then we can revisit the other topic."
Teams and arbitration-eligible players will exchange salary figures Tuesday. Though the Reds have been negotiating with all of their eligible players, those figures can form a framework for getting a deal done.
Arbitration hearings are held Feb. 1-20, but O'Brien and his staff have always been vocal about their disdain for letting things go that far. Since O'Brien took over as GM following the 2003 season, just one player has gone to a hearing. Before the 2004 season, reliever Chris Reitsma asked for $1.45 million and the Reds countered at $950,000. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the team, and the Reds traded Reitsma to Atlanta during spring training.
Once the Reds get all of their players in the fold for this season - be it through the preferred negotiated settlement or a hearing - O'Brien said the team would consider reopening discussions about multi-year deals with some of them. The current regime has maintained that it prefers not to engage in negotiations during the season, but O'Brien said getting something done in Sarasota remains an option.
"I think it's something we could talk about during spring training," he said. "Once the regular season starts, sometimes those sorts of discussions become a distraction, but I don't think during the spring there's any concern in that regard."
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