"There's no question that avoiding arbitration for the next three years is a good thing for first baseman Joey Votto and the Reds.

Arbitration can be an acrimonious process. It opens wounds in a player's relationship with a club that don't heal. The Reds and Votto avoided that Sunday when he agreed to a three-year, $38 million contract.

But the contract simply buys out Votto's arbitration years. In other words, he can take his money and run to free agency after the 2013 season.

Usually when players sign deals that buy out the arbitration years, the club will add a year or two that keeps the player from leaving via free agency.

Why the Reds didn't is subject to speculation. The Reds can't comment on the deal until it's official. It won't be official until Votto comes to Cincinnati and passes a physical. That's standard practice with all multiyear deals.

The guess here is that Votto wanted to limit the deal to three years. He was very reluctant to commit to a long-term deal when he was asked about it at Redsfest in December.

"I don't know as far as beyond three years," he said. "I think that's a very unfair question to ask. This is not me saying I don't want to be here. But last year was a difficult year. This year was a better year for me. It's really hard to think three years ahead, five years ahead, seven years ahead. When (Troy) Tulowitzki signed that 10-year contract or whatever it was, I was blown away. I can't imagine seeing myself 10 years from now and saying: 'I want to be here.' It's an overwhelming thing to ask a young person like myself and say: 'Here's a lot of money be happy with this over 10 years. Deal with it.' You don't know where you're going to be in one, two, three years.""