If the Reds are to add a starting pitcher, he won't be named Kent Mercker or Mike Morgan.
Morgan said he signed with the Minnesota Twins on Monday. Mercker said he has agreed to terms with an undisclosed team.
''That's baseball,'' Reds General Manager Jim Bowden said. ''We wanted to retain Mercker and Morgan. We worked diligently to sign them but we couldn't keep up.''
The Reds' rotation behind Dave Burba, Brett Tomko and Mike Remlinger is not set.
''You'd like to sign one more (starting pitcher),'' Reds manager Jack McKeon said. ''But who's to say we can't develop another Tomko?''
Mark Hutton, acquired from Colorado in the trade for Curtis Goodwin, and Gabe White, Jim Crowell and Curt Lyons will compete for the fourth and fifth spots.
Both Mercker and Morgan were willing to take less money to sign with the Reds.
''I wanted to come back,'' Morgan said. ''I would have taken a little less but not what the difference turned out to be.''
Morgan signed with the Twins for $1.4 million. The Reds offered $900,000, he said.
''I knew their situation,'' Morgan said. ''They just didn't have the funds.''
Morgan, 38, was 9-12 with a 4.78 ERA for the Reds last year. He was 4-1, 3.24 in September.
Mercker said he couldn't disclose which team signed him, but that it will be announced today.
''No one really overwhelmed me, but this is a better situation even though the Reds were closer to home,'' Mercker said.
Mercker said last week the Reds had offered a three-year, $4.5 million deal.
Mercker, a 29-year-old left-hander, was 8-11 with a 3.92 ERA last season.
Pete Schourek, another free agent, will not return either. The Reds did not offer arbitration, so they cannot negotiate with him until May 1.
OFFSEASON STORIES
REDS PAGE