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Thursday, July 13
Neagle trade a sign of rebuilding


CINCINNATI -- Instead of contending, the Cincinnati Reds are retreating.

Five months after they made the city giddy by trading for Ken Griffey Jr., they've left fans with an empty feeling by trading No. 1 starter Denny Neagle to the New York Yankees for prospects.

It's the type of thing they did three years ago, when they traded top starter John Smiley to Cleveland for prospects and officially stamped themselves as a rebuilding team.

Denny Neagle
Trading Denny Neagle to the Yankees was the Reds' way of packing it in.
Fans thought they'd outgrown that phase when they won 96 games last year, added Griffey and were picked to win the NL Central. The trade Wednesday ended any hope of contending this season, and maybe beyond.

The key date now appears to be 2003, when the Reds are scheduled to move into a new stadium.

"Obviously, deals like this are very difficult because you're trading your No. 1 starter," general manager Jim Bowden said. "You're hurting your chances of winning now, and we know this.

"But we're not straying from our goal of 2003 and having a championship club when we open up the new stadium. In order to do that, you have to make deals like this."

Neagle was one of the few Reds who lived up to expectations this season as the Reds fell eight games behind St. Louis in the NL Central. It's nothing at all like what they expected.

The Reds expected to build on 1999, when they were the small-market surprise of the majors. They missed out on the playoffs by one game, then added one of the game's top players in Griffey.

They've been a hit at the box office -- the Reds are on target to set a franchise record for attendance, topping the 2.6 million they drew in 1976, in the midst of the Big Red Machine dynasty. But they flopped on the field, heading into the All-Star break with a losing record (43-44) and only a slim chance of making up ground.

"I think the guys felt confident that we had a chance to come back and get into the postseason, but guys could sense that we didn't have that chemistry or that spark or that magic feeling that we had last season, when we were down two or three runs and felt we were going to come back and win," Neagle said. "We couldn't get that spark back this year."

As recently as last Sunday, Bowden talked about the team making a run at the playoffs. He had Griffey pull out of the All-Star game so he could rest his sore knee and be ready for the second half.

When the Yankees called Bowden on Wednesday and agreed to give up four prospects for Neagle, the Reds' general manager made the deal and ended hopes for this season.

He knew it would be unpopular to trade his No. 1 starter and get fans thinking long-term again.

"That doesn't mean you don't want to win between now and then, but we want to continue to stockpile as many good young players as we can so that by the time we get to the new stadium, we can be competitive for a long period of time and not just one or two years at a time," Bowden said.

The other question pending at midseason is whether the Reds will sign captain Barry Larkin to an extension. Larkin also can be a free agent after the season and wants at least a three-year extension.

Bowden said the Neagle deal doesn't have any impact on Larkin's situation.

"They're totally separate issues," Bowden said. "You're not letting one go to use the money for another player. They're totally unrelated."