Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Players, Bowden dispute fairness of offers
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Reds' attempts to sign their young stars to long-term contracts have turned into a war of words.
General manager Jim Bowden defends the four-year contract offers he made to Sean Casey, Dmitri Young, Pokey Reese and Danny Graves on April 16.
“(The offers are) fair not only for the Cincinnati Reds,” Bowden said, “but consistent with market value for baseball.”
“Fair?” Young said and then laughed.
Neither the players nor Bowden would reveal the numbers offered.
“It's a substantial amount of money,” Graves said. “But it's not market value. We're all about staying with the Reds at a discount. But be fair about it.”
The offer to Reese was for $5.7 million a year, a source said, the same amount the Cleveland Indians are paying shortstop Omar Vizquel in 2003 and 2004.
The source said the offers to Young and Casey were similar to the four-year contracts recently signed by young Milwaukee Brewers sluggers Richie Sexson ($17.5 million overall) and Geoff Jenkins ($18 million).
There was no indication of the offer to Graves.
Casey wants to keep negotiations private. “I'll wait 'til the season is over, and we'll see if we can work something out,” he said. “Obviously I'd like to stay here. We all want to stay and finish what we started.”
Casey, Young, Reese and Graves are part of the young nucleus the Reds want to keep together for the opening of Great American Ball Park in 2003.
The players realize fans have trouble relating to them turning down millions.
“Like I said, it's a substantial amount of money,” Graves said. “The average person probably thinks we're stupid for not signing, and we're greedy. But we see players we're better than getting paid more than we're getting offered. We want to be treated fairly.”
DUNN UPDATE: Outfielder Adam Dunn is tearing up Double-A Chattanooga, but that doesn't mean the Reds are ready to put him in the major leagues.
“We're happy with (Alex) Ochoa, Young, (Michael) Tucker and (Ruben) Rivera,” Bowden said. “But we're certainly evaluating him. He's not ready. But we're looking at him.”
Dunn, the second-round draft pick in 1998, is hitting .338 with 10 home runs and 29 RBI. He's among the top two in the league in six categories.
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Players, Bowden dispute fairness of offers
