CINCINNATI -- It was the last day of school and with the way the season went the Cincinnati Reds were like most kids -- glad the school year is over.
Before Sunday's final game against the Pittsburgh Pirates most of the Reds were tossing items into large cardboard boxes in front of their lockers, mail and equipment and trinkets that they had gathered over the course of the embarrassing and disappointing season.
"It is never a good thing or a fun thing to pack up on the last day of the season," said outfielder Chris Heisey. "And we're not used to it."
Heisey was referring to the fact that in three of the last four seasons the Reds didn't have to pack up after game 162 because they were headed for the playoffs.
Not this year. Fourth place. And first place has been the disappearing taillights of the St. Louis Cardinals since the All-Star break.
So what does that mean for next year and the future? The Reds made the first step this week, a step toward stability, by extending the contract of general manager Walt Jocketty for two more years.
As one player tossed items into his packing box, he looked up and said, "There were a lot of players humbled in this clubhouse this year. That's probably a good thing because they are the kind of people who will take it to heart and try to do something about it next year."
He didn't name names but he glanced toward the lockers of Joey Votto and Jay Bruce.
So how does Jocketty go about re-energizing the Reds? It won't be easy and his task is monumental.
If he is thinking about trades, there is no way he can trade Votto or Bruce or Brandon Phillips or Homer Bailey.
Votto owns a fat contract and with his injury problems for the last two years no team will take on the $225 million or so he is still owed.
Bruce staggered through the worst year of his career and made it worse by trying to come back from knee surgery in less than three weeks. His marketability is at basement level.
Phillips is aging quickly and slowing down offensively and his contract is too fat. As one scout said, "If the Reds want to trade him and they have to trade Cueto they can tell the other team, 'We'll trade you Cueto, but you have to take Phillips, too.'"
But there is a problem there, too. Phillips is a 10-and-5 guy (10 years in the majors and five with the Reds), so he has to approve any trade the Reds try to make involving him.
Homer Bailey is not a possibility, either, not with his $105 million contract and the surgery that has him wearing a brace on his right arm and the possibility that he might not be back until early next season, might miss a start or two.
Pitcher Mat Latos probably is not a tradable product right now, either, after suffering a spring training full of injuries and a season-ending injury that limited him to 16 starts and a 5-and-5 record.
Then there are the guys the Reds probably don't want to trade, the guys every team will ask about -- center fielder Billy Hamilton, catcher Devin Mesoraco and third baseman Todd Frazier.
That doesn't leave much talent for Jocketty to dangle on the market, unless he wants to trade some of the starting pitching in the minors. That probably isn't a good idea, either, because he might need them in the near future.
That's because if he is going to improve a moribund offense he might have to trade Cueto or Mike Leake or Alfredo Simon or Aroldis Chapman.
Cueto, Leake, Latos and Simon, four-fifths of this year's rotation, all are eligible for free agency after next season and keeping all four is probably a financial burden the Reds can't absorb.
Can you imagine what Cueto can command on the free agent market, especially from teams like the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox or Los Angeles Dodgers or Chicago Cubs?
Manager Bryan Price, whose contract aligns with Jocketty's for two more years, knows the issues as well as anybody. He knows how tough it has been for the Reds to develop pitching over the years and now that they produced a guy like Cueto how can they keep him?
"It's the same environment for all the mid-market teams, a similar situation," said Price. "We have a lot of homegrown players working their way toward salary arbitration or free agency.
"As much as we'd love to keep every single guy and pay them what they deserve, it is impossible to do it here," he added. "You feel like you have to pick your favorite guy and hope you can sign him. And it doesn't look good when it appears you aren't trying to sign your best players."
That, of course, would be Cueto, as far as the pitching staff is concerned.
"It's hard to keep them all and probably impossible to keep them all," said Price. "But every effort will be made. And sometimes the player has to cooperate, too, and it is hard to ask them in the prime of their careers to make it work for both sides."
And Price knows the magnitude of four starters entering free agency at the same time.
"No doubt about it, noted," he said. "That will be a challenge, no doubt. A huge challenge to make the right decisions and to be able to compete. The closer you get to free agency the tougher it is to get those guys signed before they hit the free agent market."
In addition to the impending free agent dilemma the Reds have other financial mountains to climb this winter.
It is called salary arbitration and the Reds have nine players eligible. And that means big raises for players who have been at the lower spectrum of the pay scale and big raises for players at the mid-range level.
The Reds have to sign or go to arbitration with Mat Latos, Mike Leake, Alfredo Simon, Aroldis Chapman, Logan Ondrusek, Chris Heisey, Zack Cozart, Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco.
That is a bank vault full of projected raises and, of coure, it makes Jocketty's job that much more brain-twisting and hand-wrenching.
And his reclamation project begins today.
