By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOS ANGELES - The Reds have just received or are about to receive checks of $1.65 million from the New York Yankees and $1 million from the Boston Red Sox.

The money is part of the compensation for the trades of Aaron Boone ($1.25 million) and Gabe White ($400,000) to the Yanks and Scott Williamson ($1 million) to the Red Sox.

But if you think that money is going to pay unsigned picks for the June draft or help lure free agents for next year, you're wrong.

"That money goes to the budget, because we're going to be short on projected attendance and we were over on payroll," said assistant general manager Leland Maddox.

Maddox was answering a question about whether the money would help the Reds in their attempts to sign fourth-round pick Marc Cornell and 10th-round pick Andrew Alessio.

His answer was revealing, because in the spin following the fallout over trading Boone, White, Williamson and Jose Guillen, the Reds never mentioned a budget shortfall for this year.

Maddox referred more specific questions about the budget to chief operating officer John Allen, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

It's believed the shortfall comes because the Reds projected attendance of 2.6 million when drawing up this year's budget.

Right now, they are on pace to draw 2.4 million.

The flurry of trades made the Reds a young and cheaper team. So next year's budget - if the team doesn't re-sign Barry Larkin, doesn't exercise the options on Scott Sullivan's and Kelly Stinnett's contracts, and non-tenders Ryan Dempster - projects at about $40 million.

Considering the Reds started this year with a player payroll of $60 million, they would appear to have a lot of wiggle room for next year.

Given that the trades saved the Reds $3.2 million in salary and brought in $2.65 million in cash, the Reds needed a payroll of about $54 million to break even, factoring in the 2.4 million attendance figure.

What will be interesting is to see where the player payroll is set for next year. Because with the novelty of the new stadium gone and expectations down with a younger team, the Reds aren't likely to draw as well.