GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- There are short-term concerns for Cincinnati Reds general manager Walt Jocketty, like finalizing the roster for next week's start of the regular season.
And then there are long-term concerns for Jocketty, too, like what to do about second baseman Brandon Phillips and first baseman Joey Votto.
The Reds want to keep Phillips and Votto long-term.
What they want and what they can do, however, is not necessarily the same thing.
Jocketty has been involved in talks to try to sign both players to multi-year deals this spring.
"I think we are making progress, but we are not close to anything," Jocketty says. "We will see what happens in the next week or so."
Phillips, however, is eligible to be a free-agent in the fall. He is making $12 million this year, and among the benchmarks brought up in his negotiations, undoubtedly, are Dan Uggla, who signed a five-year, $62 million deal, and Chase Utley, signed to a seven-year, $85 million deal.
Votto could test the open market following the 2013 season. His contract includes a salary of $9.5 million this year and $17 million in 2013. Just this past offseason the free-agent market for first basemen was spiked by Albert Pujols' 10-year, $240-million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the nine-year, $214 million deal Prince Fielder received from the Detroit Tigers.
Once their current deals expire, the Reds chances of retaining either player are minimal.
Nothing personal. It's how baseball's economic system works.
"Baseball used to pay for what you did," says Reds manager Dusty Baker, "but it changed a few years ago, and now it's what you could do."
Ask Jocketty's close friend, Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin, about that. When the Brewers opened last season and Fielder was in the final year of his contract, Melvin and everybody in Milwaukee knew it would be Fielder's final season in the Brew City.
That's life for small- and mid-market teams.
"When they hit the free-agent market you can't compete financially," admits Jocketty. "It's why we try to work on it ahead of time."
Even St. Louis found that out, the hard way, losing Pujols to the Angels.
"In a market like Cincinnati we have to identify guys we want to hold onto and work to sign them to extensions," says Jocketty. "With the drafts we have had the last few years we should have a steady stream of players onto our big-league roster, and it is important to have the anchor (of a veteran nucleus)....
"Of course, the veteran players have to want to be part of your franchise going forward and both (Phillips and Votto) have indicated they have that desire."
Phillips has found a home in Cincinnati, after having been given only limited opportunities with the Montreal Expos and Cleveland Indians. He said he has left the negotiations up to the Levinson Brothers, his agents, but said, he "loves" the Reds and Cincinnati.
Votto, a second-round choice of the Reds when he came out of high school in Toronto, has been with the franchise for a decade. Recently interviewed about Hall of Fame issues, he was asked if he were some day inducted, which player he would want to have his plaque next to.
"The Cincinnati guys," he said. "Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson."
The reality, however, is the Reds aren't the size of franchise that can go head-to-head with teams like the Yankees or Texas or the Angels. The Reds have confirmed a report that their revenue in 2011 was $169 million. That's less than the payroll of both the Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.
The Reds are pretty committed to a payroll in the $80 million range. By comparison, Texas paid $51.7 million to the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan this past offseason to merely have the rights to negotiate with right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish, who then signed a six-year, $60 million deal.
"It's all a part of our game," Baker says. "As an organization, you deal with it, and as a player or a manager, you deal with it."
Baker is headed into his 19th season as a big-league manager. He spent 15 full seasons in the big leagues as a player and also had time in parts of four others in the early years of his career.
Baker smiled when he remembered his days as a player, back before free agency, and he was holding out for $5,000 more than the Atlanta Braves offered.
"I was working out on a back field, in shorts and a t-shirt, by myself," Baker says. "My manager, Clyde King, called me over, and said, 'Come on over, we'll work something out.'"
Now, it's Baker who tries to work things out to keep his players who are in the final year of a contract focused on the game each day.
"I've been through it myself, as a player and a manager, and I try to tell them worrying doesn't do anything," he said. "You have to play with the gifts God has given you and everything else falls into play. You try to simplify things, and take pressure off yourself."
And when it comes to a franchise, that pressure can be lifted if a long-term contract can be negotiated.
