In a new twist to the Ken Griffey Jr saga, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Reds may have no interest in trading Griffey. When asked about the subject, GM Walt Jocketty said that he has had no discussions with other teams about trading Griffey and that Griffey does not want to be traded.
"I’ve had no trade discussions," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said. "I’ve talked with him…Not knowing Junior that well, I wanted to make sure we had a line of communication open. He assured me that he’d like to play here and hopefully win a championship."
Griffey is a "10 and 5" player (10 years exp. and 5 years with current club) and would have to approve any trade.
This seems to contradict recent reports of the Mariners interest in Griffey. Hal McCoy reported that the M’s sent an executive (not a scout) to watch Griffey play last week. And it was later reported that Seattle had no problems with acquiring Griffey’s ’09 option at $16MM with a $4MM buyout. It is hard to imagine the M’s would express this much public interest in Griffey without at least preliminary discussions with the Reds.
Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.
