PHOENIX -- Facing losses estimated at up to $45 million, the Arizona Diamondbacks are eliminating 15 administrative positions as part of a $10 million reduction in operation costs during the off-season.

The team's financial difficulties mean the Diamondbacks will not be able to make any significant free-agent signings.

Team president Rich Dozer said Tuesday that the cuts were across-the-board.

"It's a little bit of everything. It's not just a baseball operation thing or just a baseball marketing thing," Dozer said. "Every department has cut its operating budget, some of them by 2 percent and some by 10 or 15 percent."

The Arizona Republic reported the team's losses at up to $45 million.

Dozer wouldn't confirm that figure but said, "it's been significant."

"We have some tough financial challenges," he said. "We're going to make it through them, but we're making some tough decisions that quite frankly we don't want to do, especially when it comes down to letting people go."

Dozer said that while 15 positions were eliminated, five or six of them were people who had left the organization and were not being replaced. The rest were layoffs.

"There's been a little bit in communications, some marketing things, some administrative people behind the scenes in baseball and other things, but the normal person won't even notice it," Dozer said.

There were minor administrative budget cuts in the critical areas of scouting and player development.

"It's not like we're taking somebody away from Latin America or Mexico or the Far East. We're not doing any of that," Dozer said. "We're not cutting a minor league team. We're going to try to be more efficient in some of those places, but we haven't gone in and made wholesale cuts."

Owner Jerry Colangelo told The Republic that most of the cuts amounted to "re-examining the expenses. It's not just the size of the departments, but how the money was spent."

Colangelo and Dozer were adamant that there will be no player trades simply to cut the team's payroll, estimated to be about $85 million next year.

"Jerry has said all along that we're not going to be a reincarnation of what happened down in Florida," Dozer said. "He's sticking to that. We've talked to the players. The players know that."

After the expansion team's first season in 1998, Colangelo spent millions for high-priced free agents Randy Johnson, Steve Finley and Todd Stottlemyre, among others. He already had big contracts with Matt Williams and Jay Bell.

Colangelo figured the team had to win right away to bring in the kind of attendance necessary to make baseball successful in Arizona. But attendance dropped in 1999, even though he Diamondbacks won the NL West title, and it dropped again last season.

With the franchise having to pay a hefty expansion fee, and with two years left before Arizona receives its full share of television revenue, the losses have escalated.

The Republic said the Diamondbacks were expected to be the biggest money loser in baseball this year.

Colangelo, who had to go to investors for a cash call a year ago, has two years left on a four-year plan to get the Diamondbacks into the World Series, which would help the bleak financial picture.

"If you go to the World Series," Dozer said, "you can make a $15 million profit, maybe more."