By John Fay
and Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SARASOTA, Fla. - The Reds' payroll will come in right in the $46 million range.

The club signed the last of its players Tuesday when Adam Dunn agreed to terms.

Dunn got a split contract that will pay him $445,000 as long as he's in the majors. Dunn is the highest paid of the players who aren't eligible for arbitration. Austin Kearns got $400,000.

That means the Reds have $43.095 million committed to 15 players. The other 10 players on the roster figure to make a total of $3.5 million or less, since all but two - Felipe Lopez ($390,000) and Aaron Harang ($360,000) - make less than $350,000.

The Reds' Opening Day payroll last year was $59.3 million.

Dunn, who made $400,000 last year, wasn't happy with the split contract.

But split contracts are club policy. A split contract pays a player at least 80 percent of what he made the previous year should he be sent to the minor leagues.

The Reds again avoided renewing any contract, which is the club's right.

"We prefer not to do renewals," Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said.

Director of baseball operations Brad Kullman negotiated contracts of players with zero to three years' service time as he did under former GM Jim Bowden.

"We had a structured scale," Kullman said.

BOONE UPDATE: The Reds haven't done anything on the Aaron Boone front.

"Right now, we have other issues to deal with," O'Brien said. "With the severity of the injury, it's not a pressing issue right now."

Boone, who tore his ACL in his left knee playing basketball in January, was released by the New York Yankees and is a free agent.

Boone's agent, Tom Reich, did not return a phone message.

WILSON READY: At the time, he was a promising rookie throwing the first pitch in the Mets' spring training exhibition opener.

Eight years, two teams and two arm surgeries later, Paul Wilson will start his second career spring training exhibition opener.

The Reds play the Pirates at 1:05 p.m. today in Bradenton.

"It'll be nice to throw the competitive juices in there," Wilson said. "I'm going to try to get my timing down and get that initial competition going.

"It doesn't matter if it's intrasquad or an exhibition. It's still a game against somebody else's team."

Scheduled to follow Wilson are Brandon Claussen, Danny Graves, John Riedling and Mike Matthews.

B SQUAD: Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Larkin and Austin Kearns won't make the trip to Bradenton.

Griffey and Larkin will play Friday in the home opener against Toronto.

"I think it's important to play those guys here," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Griffey wanted to play both.

"He's biting at the bit," Miley said. "He wants to play every day, but there's no need to rush."

INTRASQUAD II: The Gray team beat the White 6-4 in the second of the Reds' two intrasquad games.

The highlight? Effective displays of little ball.

• For the White, William Bergolla led off the game with a double. Larkin sacrificed him to third. After Griffey Jr. walked, Sean Casey got Bergolla home with a groundout.

• For the Gray, Ray Olmedo bunted on his own with runners at first and second with no outs. He got both runners over, and they eventually scored.

"That's what we've got to do," Miley said. "Olmedo's a perfect example. He did that on his own. For them to go out and want to do it is a good sign."

Bergolla, a 21-year-old rookie infielder from Venezuela, was 2-for-2 on the day.

Olmedo walked, beat out a bunt hit and had the sacrifice.

Dunn drove in two runs - one a sacrifice fly and the other on a groundout.

Reliever Ryan Wagner was a tad wild - he walked three and threw three wild pitches in one inning.

"It looked like he was trying to overthrow," Miley said. "It's the first outing."