From Marc (the source of all news lately):
In talking to Dan O'Brien early this afternoon (post-Valentin, pre-Pena signing), I asked him about the possibility of more long-term contracts coming down the pipe for the arbitration-eligible guys. Specifically, I was thinking of Dunn, Lopez and possibly Harang. It took me going one-by-one through the list of remaining guys, but the bottom line that eventually emerged is this: none of the arb-eligible players will get multi-year contracts immediately."We have had some multi-year discussions," said O'Brien. "But based on where we're at today, for instance with Mr. Harang, he and his agent prefer to address '06 right now and make that the priority, and then afterwards we can look at the possibility of a multi-year. And we're fine with that approach."
And Dunn? O'Brien had been open about his desire to work out a longer-term deal. Did the Reds try to do that?
"We did, and we had some preliminary discussion, but with the clock ticking here, it was decided that the best thing to do was to focus on '06 for the moment and then we can revisit the other topic (at a later date)."
The things that come out of this man's mouth simply shock me. He's running the franchise into the ground, full steam ahead.
I'm hopeful that the reason he can't make long term deals is because his ass is getting canned in the next two weeks, but we're probably not that lucky.