INDIANS INSIDER
Tribe hunts for Reds for October
Saturday, July 09, 2005
New York- The Cincinnati Reds are one of the teams the Indians are talking to in an effort to improve their offense.
It is no secret what the Tribe wants - a right-handed hitting outfielder to bat between Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez in the middle of the order. They hit dead ends in San Francisco and Milwaukee when they asked about Moises Alou and Carlos Lee.
The Reds, 21 games out of first place in the National League Central, offer more than one possibility.
Third baseman Joe Randa and outfielders Wily Mo Pena and Austin Kearns are right-handed hitters. Randa and Pena are having good seasons. Kearns is in the minors.
Adam Dunn, a left-handed hitter with big-time power, is another possibility.
The Indians, it's believed, are interested in any one of the four.
Randa is hitting .302 (82-for-291) with 21 doubles, 12 homers and 45 RBI. Pena is hitting .282 (44-for-156) with 12 doubles, 12 homers and 32 RBI. Kearns was hitting .224 (38-for-170) with 11 doubles, six homers and 25 RBI before getting sent down.
He was hitting .342 with 11 doubles, four homers and 16 RBI through 76 at-bats at Class AAA Louisville. One of the reasons the Reds sent him to Class AAA was to get his weight down from 255 pounds.
Dunn is hitting .243 (68-for-280) with 17 doubles, 22 homers and 48 RBI. He's walked 60 times and struck out 91 times.
Kearns already has asked to be traded, but the Reds said he wasn't going anywhere.
The Indians are believed to be zeroing in on Pena or Kearns. If they could acquire one of them, they could put him in right field, move Casey Blake back to third and strengthen the lineup from top to bottom.
The Reds, who started this season with a $60 million payroll and thoughts of contending, still are trying to decide what their next step will be. Do they blow the club up and start over or do they take a more patient approach?
GM Mark Shapiro has said he will part with the top prospects in the system for the right deal. Class AAA Buffalo shortstop Brandon Phillips could be available.
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