Thursday, March 11, 1999
Bowden tries to unload outfielder
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SARASOTA, Fla. — Conventional logic dictates that if Reds General Manager Jim Bowden can trade for a proven slugger like Greg Vaughn, he can find a way to package less-heralded outfielders such as Jeffrey Hammonds or Jon Nunnally in a deal.
But baseball logic doesn't work that way.
Jovially advising reporters to stay by their telephones, Bowden left the Reds' spring training headquarters Wednesday without a trade that would ease his logjam of qualified outfielders, though talks involving Hammonds and Nunnally have accelerated.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers have turned down deals involving Hammonds, said sources familiar with both teams. Arizona, which needs a right-handed hitter to balance its left-handed-dominant personnel, could still have interest.
Nunnally was dangled before Toronto, Detroit and other teams without an agreement. Sources said that Detroit, which visited Ed Smith Stadium and lost to the Reds 10-5, would not yield outfielder Kimera Bartee for Nunnally. Unlike Bartee, Nunnally has no minor-league options left, so keeping him within the organization by sending him to Triple-A Indianapolis would be almost impossible.
Hammonds, 28, and Nunnally, 27, are young and accomplished enough to be marketable. Both can play all three outfield positions. Hammonds has a .266 average in six major-league seasons and, when healthy, was an everyday player with Baltimore. Nunnally, a .251 hitter in parts of four major-league seasons, has nothing to prove in the minors.
But neither has a realistic shot of unseating anyone in the projected starting outfield of left fielder Vaughn, center fielder Mike Cameron and right fielder Dmitri Young.
Still striving to replenish a farm system which has been neglected in the Marge Schott regime, the Reds would accept minor-league prospects in any deal.
First baseman Hal Morris and outfielder Michael Tucker also have been mentioned in speculation, especially involving the Atlanta Braves. But nothing appears imminent with that team. And Bowden won't easily part with Tucker, a player he tried to obtain for years.
Fortunately for the Reds, the rumors haven't poisoned clubhouse spirit.
“It's no secret when teams come over here and they see me, Nunnally and Tucker in the outfield,” Hammonds said, describing the Reds' alignment that finished the Detroit game. “But the best thing about it is that everybody's here rooting for one another. It (trade speculation) is out of our control. It's making us all go out there and work a little bit harder.”
“It's baseball,” said Nunnally, last year's Opening Day right fielder who was sent to Triple-A after he began the season hitting .215. “Those things are going to happen. There are times when you go home and you don't really sleep that well. But when you get in a game, you don't think about it.”
Issuing a play-me-or-trade-me declaration was the farthest thing from either player's mind.
“Shoot, for the last six years I've been in trade talks,” Hammonds said. “I'd be very surprised if anyone would come out and say, "You have to move me because I want to play.' You're not guaranteed a shot anyway. Right now, this is our opportunity as a whole. It's a whole new beginning for the Cincinnati Reds. New uniforms, facial hair — there are a lot of things that have changed this year. It's a whole new brand of baseball. To be associated with something like this, that's your dream, especially as a young ballplayer.”
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