According to a story yesterday at SignOnSanDiego.com, the Reds are among the teams pursuing Pedro Astacio, who couldn't reach terms with the Padres by the deadline and is now unable to join them until May 1.

I assume that the Reds' interest is pending Astacio keeping his slender figure.

It's lucky pennies that always turn back up, right?

When Luke Hudson was designated for assigment to make room for Michael Gosling, and Jung Keun Bong for Scott Hatteberg, it seemed like I was reading a lot of “I never liked him anyway” or “I really thought he could work out” kinds of comments. People seemed to think they were gone forever.

In both cases, though, there's still time to not like or hope for the best for the guys. Both cleared waivers and are again signed with the organization. For Bong, it seemed easy:

Jung Keun Bong has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Louisville along with an invitation to big-league camp.

For Hudson, it was a touch more complicated:

“Waivers were secured (once) to allow us to outright Hudson to Louisville. Because he was a potential minor league free agent, under MLB rules he must sign a major league contract prior to being outrighted. This rule applies to any potential minor league free agent who is outrighted during the off-season after October 15 of the previous year (Bong, Hancock and Kozlowski are in the same category).”

Actually, that makes it sound like Bong was in the same situation, but we were spared the gory details. Really, I'm grateful.

At the same time the Reds were signing Quinton McCracken to a minor league deal, they were also giving Tuffy Rhodes the minor league treatment:

Rhodes has been playing in Japan since 1996 and in 2001, he tied Sadaharu Oh's Japanese single-season record with 55 home runs. From 1990-95, the 37-year-old played for the Astros, Cubs and Red Sox.

A Cincinnati native, Rhodes graduated from Western Hills High School in 1986.

Um, I'm running out of smart alec things to say about old guys signing with this organization. At this rate, though, the Bats will be routinely calling their big-league counterparts “champ” and “sonny” and offering them a quarter to go fetch the sports section out from under grandma's knitting basket.

According to a story on the official site, the Reds signed another old guy, Quinton McCracken, to a minor league contract yesterday.

McCracken, who will turn 36 years old next month, batted .237 in 134 games with Diamondbacks last season. A lifetime .276 hitter over his 11 seasons in the Major Leagues, he has also played for the Rockies, Devil Rays, Twins and Mariners.

If McCracken earns a spot on the Reds 25-man roster out of camp, he will earn $600,000.

This is, like, move #19 out of 22 for general manager Wayne Krivsky since he started last week. I'm worried that he's not getting the rest he needs. You know what they say: a healthy general manager is a good general manager.

The Reds designated for assignment pitcher Jung Keun Bong yesterday to make room for the newly signed Scott Hatteberg.

Bong and Bubba Nelson were the booty the Reds received from Atlanta in exchange for the beloved righty Chris Reitsma in March 2004. Nelson was also designated for assignment, cleared waivers, and was outrighted to Louisville on February 3 of this year. Bong is sure to clear waivers, too. There aren't a lot of teams gobbling up Reds cast-offs these days.

Well, the Nationals. And the Pirates. OK, maybe it's not a sure thing.

Now that Dunn is signed and the Hatteberg corresponding roster move has been announced, it's looking significantly less likely that general manager Wayne Krivsky had a secret trade for Dunn in the works all along. Darn it all. I was really looking forward to gloating that I'd called it.