Reds Sign All Arbitration Cases

General Manager Bill Bergesch said a growing uneasiness with baseball’s arbitration process combined with new money from owner Marge Schott helped the Cincinnati Reds sign all their arbitration-eligible players.

For the first time since 1979, the National League ballclub doesn’t have a player taking a salary disagreement to arbitration. Seven players who filed for arbitration have agreed to contracts before their hearings.

Bergesch said baseball teams and players evidently have soured on arbitration hearings, in which both sides present their salary figures and arguments to support their positions. The arbitrator then chooses either the player’s figure or the ballclub’s offer.

“There’s no doubt about it. Everyone involved--clubs, players and agents--likes to stay away from arbitration,” Bergesch said. “No one likes to do it and that’s mainly because of the hard feelings that can come out of it. One day, you’re knocking a guy down and the next, you’re asking him to play for you.”

Bergesch also credited Schott, who bought controlling interest in the team last December.

“She has given us the money to do what we feel we have to do,” Bergesch said.