The official press releases on three player moves are now posted to the Reds' official website:

Alex Gonzalez, SS, and Mike Stanton, P, are signed to free agent contracts. The official press releases state “terms of the deal were not disclosed”.

However, the deal for Gonzalez is being reported as threee years, $14 million with a $6 million mutual option for a fourth year (and a $500,000 buyout). The deal for Stanton is being reported as two years, $5.5 million, with a vesting option for 2009.

The third deal is Jason LaRue to Kansas City for two minor league mascots and an autographed picture of Jim Sundberg.

Just kidding. It's LaRue to the Royals for a player to be named later. Some reports say no cash was involved, others say the Reds included an undisclosed amount of cash in the deal. If I had to guess, the deal LaRue signed under previous GM O'Brien was a two-year, $9.1 million contract. Since he was traded after Oct. 15, his 2007 salary would jump from $5.2 million to $5.45 million. My best guess would be that the Reds might have made up the difference. And, presumably this cements Javy Valentin's position as the backup to David Ross, which ought to brighten RHM's day.

Anyway, it's official - in with Gonzo and Stanton and out with LaRue. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit back and wait for RHM to post something on these moves before I comment further. After all, it's her blog. :-)

HMZ