BRADENTON, Fla. — The Mayor must cast an absentee ballot this season.

Sean Casey, so popular during eight seasons with the Cincinnati Reds that he gained his Mayor nickname because of it, has shifted NL Central addresses to his Pittsburgh hometown. The question is whether he'll stay around long enough to become a registered voter.

For now, he's not a home owner. He is on the last year of a contract that pays him $8.5 million, all but $1 million of it paid by the Pirates, and he is uncertain of his 2007 address. Especially since his new club has specialized lately in one-year rent-a-players.

No wonder, Casey said Thursday of his 2006 housing plans, "I'm renting a house."

Casey had the run of the house in Cincinnati, where fans loved his enthusiastic attitude, upbeat personality and, most of all, his .305 career batting average — even if his power production was erratic (24 homers in 2004, 9 in 2005). Despite the Pirates' need for more power, they willingly brought in Casey to hold down first base until prospect Brad Eldred is ready.

The 6-foot-5 Eldred, as much a power hitter as Casey is a gap hitter, showed plenty of long ball potential by hitting 12 homers during his 190 at-bats with Pittsburgh last season, but struck out 77 times. The Pirates want him to spend another season in the minors cutting down on that swing and becoming more selective at the plate.

That leaves Casey the starter. For now.

"Right now, I'm just looking forward to the season and focusing on playing for the Pirates this season. After that ...," Casey said. "You never know in this game, and I'm not going to try to figure it out, either. I spent eight years with the Reds and didn't expect to be traded, so now I'm expecting the unexpected."

If nothing else, Casey gets one season playing in the city where he first learned to play the game and, with father Jim, regularly attended Pirates games at Three Rivers Stadium. He knows every distant relative and long-lost friend will be looking for free tickets, but he hardly sees that as a problem.

This is home. This is where he is comfortable. Even if his stay is measured in months and weeks, not years.

"It will be fun. Mom and dad are there, and a lot of my friends are there," Casey said.

What he doesn't want to get is so comfortable he changes his hitting style. He has hit 20 or more homers three times, but also has seasons of 7, 6, 14 and 9 homers, low numbers for a corner infielder. PNC Park offers an inviting 320-foot target down the right-field line but, Casey said, he's not much of a hit-it-down-the-line hitter.

"Great American Ballpark was short, and I didn't hit a lot of home runs there, so I'm probably the wrong guy to be asking about hitting homers," Casey said.