By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Though the Reds are unsure of their player-payroll budget, they are confident it will be enough to spend $2.5 million on a 15-game winner.

That's what the Reds did Friday when they re-signed Jimmy Haynes. The 30-year-old right-hander went 15-10 with a 4.12 ERA last season and led the Reds' staff in victories, starts (34), innings (196) and strikeouts (126).

Haynes, who made $500,000 last season, signed a one-year deal with a player option for 2004. He would make $2.5 million again in '04. There are no incentives or buyouts included.

"We talked with a few other teams," Haynes said. "But I like Cincinnati. I wanted to stay here. It's a good bunch of guys. Hopefully, we can build on what we did last (season)."

Last season was Haynes' best as a major-leaguer. He went 12-5 with a 3.74 ERA over his last 25 starts.

Haynes' signing goes a long way toward stabilizing the Reds' rotation. Haynes, Elmer Dessens, Danny Graves and Ryan Dempster seem to be locks as starters.

"We're glad Jimmy decided to return to Cincinnati," Reds general manager Jim Bowden said in a released statement. "He had a good working relationship with (pitching coach) Don Gullett that produced obvious results on the field."

In 2001, Haynes went 8-17 with a 4.85 ERA, and the Milwaukee Brewers, who posted the National League's worst record, chose not to re-sign him.

The Reds have four other free agents - pitchers Joey Hamilton, Jose Rijo, Brian Moehler and Shawn Estes. The team will announce today if it offered those players arbitration.

The players have until Dec. 19 to accept arbitration. If they do, they will be treated as signed players. If they reject arbitration, the Reds can still re-sign them as free agents until midnight Jan. 8. If the Reds don't re-sign the players by then, they cannot re-sign them to a major-league contract until May 1.

If the Reds don't offer the players arbitration, they cannot re-sign them to major-league contracts until May 1.

E-mail jfay@enquirer.com