BY RORY GLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Reds may have big deals on the horizon.
Indications are that second baseman Bret Boone may be moving on, possibly to the San Diego Padres in exchange for pitching.
Padres General Manager Kevin Towers, whose club has a big hole at second base, has acknowledged having talks with the Reds' Jim Bowden at the GM meetings in Phoenix.
And sources have indicated, and the Los Angeles Times reported in today's editions, that second baseman Delino DeShields will sign with the Reds Friday - the first day free agents can sign with other teams. Such a move would open the door for a Boone trade.
Bowden, reached Wednesday night in Phoenix, denied deals were in the works involving either Boone or DeShields.
''Bret Boone is our second baseman,'' Bowden said.
Bowden said he continued to talk to other clubs.
''We're not going to make a deal just to make a deal,'' he said, ''but if we can make a deal to make ourselves better, we're going to do it.''
Earlier Wednesday, the Reds announced the additions of Ken Griffey, Denis Menke and Ron Oester as coaches. They will join holdovers Don Gullett, Tom Hume and Joel Youngblood, and manager Ray Knight, to form an entire staff of former Reds.
Griffey, the Colorado Rockies' hitting coach last year, will coach first base, and also work on outfield play and baserunning. Menke, who spent the last eight years as hitting coach with the Philadelphia Phillies, will fill that role with the Reds; Oester, first base coach for Buddy Bell in Detroit last season, will be infield coach.
While speculation has been widespread that Griffey would join Knight's staff, most thought he would be the Reds' hitting coach, replacing Hal McRae, who took the same job with the Phillies.
Griffey, a .296 career hitter, already has the respect of many Reds players.
How much respect? Eduardo Perez already has told Griffey he'll change numbers so Griffey can have his familiar No. 30.
But Bowden said Griffey will be allowed, and indeed expected, to work with hitters.
''Ray and I thought this was the best fit with the particular coaches we had,'' Bowden said. ''If Ken can help someone more than Denis Menke or Ray Knight, he's going to, no question.''
Published Nov. 14, 1996.
