Thanks to a solid roster and upgrades during the offseason, the Cincinnati Reds don’t have many story lines to follow during Spring Training. But there is one that, if you’re like me, you’ve been wondering about: the status of Joey Votto’s knee.

Votto missed a lot of time from it after the All Star break last year, and when he returned, his power was gone. Unfortunately, he wasn’t one of the early arrivals to camp, so no reporter has been able to interview him. However, team doctor Timothy Kremchek has checked out Votto, and Kremchek is at camp already.

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer cornered Kremchek to ask what every fan wants to know.

Medical director Dr. Tim Kremchek visited Votto in Florida two weeks ago and reports that Votto’s surgically repaired left knee is fine.

“He’s doing well,” Kremchek said. “He looks great.”

That’s an encouraging note. We won’t really know until games start and Votto hits his first home run. The team needs a healthy Votto this year.

The Cincinnati Reds announced today that they had avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Mat Latos by signing him to a two-year $11.5 million deal.

Latos will receive salaries of $4.25 million this year and $7.25 million in 2014 under Tuesday’s deal.

The deal buys out all but one of Latos’ arbitration-eligible years. He is now due to face arbitration once more before the 2015 season, the final one before he hits free agency.

I’m excited about the deal. It follows the signing of Shin-Soo Choo yesterday and leaves only Homer Bailey in need of a contract. We’ll see if the Reds can get a multi-year deal for Bailey, too.

The Cincinnati Reds’ new lead-off hitter, Shin-Soo Choo, has agreed to a one-year deal with the team, avoiding arbitration.

Choo filed for $8 million. The Reds countered at $6.75 million.

They both settled in the middle at $7,375,000. Starters Mat Latos and Homer Bailey are the two remaining arbitration-eligible players.

As for Choo, he will definitely be an upgrade in the top spot of the lineup. But since this is a Dusty Baker team that follows Dusty’s Rules, that lead-off person has to play center field. Choo is a right fielder, though, who hasn’t played center field in more than a handful of major league games. There’s been a lot of speculation about how he’ll fare, but no interviews with the player himself.

Yesterday, Enquirer reporter John Fay finally had the chance to ask Choo some questions.

Shin-Soo Choo admits moving to center field is a process.

“I’m not comfortable there yet,” he said. “At the major league level, I played 99 percent of my games in right field. I’ll try. I’ll work on it this spring training. We’ll see how they’re thinking. If they’re not (happy), somebody else will be playing in center field.

“I’ll try the best I can.”

I’m glad to hear he’s amenable to the move. Up to this point, the switch to center had been talked about without his opinion. There could’ve been resistance from him.

Hopefully, he’ll be good enough. He’s unlikely to be as good as Drew Stubbs was defensively, but even slightly below average defense won’t make Choo’s excellent bat a downgrade overall.

Not so much “remembering” actually, as this particular gut punch of the Cubs occurred in 1958. More like, “honoring.” It was 20,000 days ago today.

Chris Jaffe at the Hardball Times has a story up today that features the Cincinnati Reds (or the Redlegs, as he mentions they were called at the time) in a ninth inning come-from-behind victory. Not just any come-from-behind victory: they went in to their ninth inning at-bat behind 2-8 and finished it up 10-8.

Of course, since the game was being played in Chicago, there was still the bottom of the inning to go, and the Reds had gone through some machinations to get their lead. The defense was a shambles:

Still, the Cubs had one thing going for them. By using three pinch hitters and a pinch runner in a game where he’d already used a double switch and gone through part of his bench, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts was unable to fill the defensive positions competently.

Exactly half of the position players found themselves in places they’d never fielded before. Three of them were in the infield—outfielders Whisenant and Robinson were at second and third respectively, while third baseman Don Hoak shifted to short. Meanwhile, veteran first baseman Dee Fondy stationed himself in left. Only two players were in the same places on the diamond from before the rally—first baseman George Crowe and center fielder Gus Bell.

Heh. I’d like to see Dusty Baker try something like that sometime. Jay Bruce is willing to move to center, but how would he feel about third?

You should check out the whole story on The Hardball Times. It’s like baseball-water in a baseball-drought stricken world.

The Cincinnati Reds signed a one-year contract with starting pitcher Mike Leake, avoiding arbitration.

Leake was in his first year of eligibility for arbitration and had filed for a salary of $3,500,000. The Reds had offered $2,650,000. In the end, the two settled at $3.06 million.

It’s quite a raise from the $507,500 he made last year.

The Reds now have three arbitration-eligible players left: Homer Bailey, Shin Soo Choo, and Mat Latos.

The gaps are fairly significant with unsigned players:

Bailey: Filed for $5,800,000. Club countered at $4,750,000
Latos Filed for $4,700,000. Club countered at $4,150,000
Choo: Filed for $8 million. Club countered at $6,750,000

Considering the team hasn’t gone to a hearing since their 2002 beat-down of Chris Reitsma, I imagine that both Bailey and Latos will sign at least a one-year deal. I’m hoping a multi-year deal can be worked out with both of them.

As for Choo, the odds seem high that the Reds will go to a hearing with him. Considering he’s not likely in the team’s long-term plans after he hits free agency next season, there’s little reason not to get as low of a price this year as possible.