Cincinnati Reds and Brandon Phillips to decide on contract extension – MLB News
The Cincinnati Reds’ general manager Walt Jocketty has stated that his club and second baseman Brandon Phillips are sorting out the contract extension and there has been a progress on this front.
Although there is no official word as to what the nature of the talks are, news reports suggest that the deal was not imminent as of yet. However, Jocketty did emphasise that there was some progress, involving some complications in the deal.
"We've made progress, but we're not close," Jocketty said. "It will take a little bit of time. It's a complicated contract. We're still letting them sort out the market."
It is worthwhile to mention that Brandon Phillips himself has immense interest in re-signing his contract with the Cincinnati Reds as he is a free agent now. The club exercised his option which was $12 million last month, as he wished to stay with the team.
The fact that he has remained – quite impressively, the three-time National League Gold winner makes him an attractive offer for any team. He himself, however, prefers his own team than to moving.
Nonetheless, the Reds’ manager stated that the issue was that of years and the amount of money it involves. Until they are determined, there cannot be a final say on the deal.
"It gets down to trying to determine the number of years and amount of dollars," Jocketty said. "We're still a ways apart on both."
Part of the Cincinnati Reds since 2006, Brandon Phillips has remained a reigning Silver Slugger. With the free-agents in the market available in abundance, it is the actual deal that the free-agents sign that have to make an impact on his final decision
as to what his demand will be for during the negotiations.
Phillips scored 94 runs in 2011 with a .300 average, having had 18 home-runs and 82 RBIs with 183 hits to his credit in the 150 games that he appeared and remained 610 at-bats while representing the Cincinnati Reds. It will be interesting to see what deal
the Reds offer Brandon Phillips.
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