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| 6th December, 2005 - 5:22 am | ESPN - A.J. Burnett moved closer to agreeing to a five-year, $55 million free-agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays as his agents and the team worked into Tuesday morning to wrap up final details.
Sources said that St. Louis, which reportedly offered Burnett $40 million over four years and was Toronto's lone competitor for Burnett, has faded from contention and that Burnett is on the verge of joining reliever B.J. Ryan as the second pitcher to sign a five-year deal with Toronto this offseason.
The Burnett deal would be the longest contract for a free-agent starter since Chan Ho Park's five-year, $65 million contract with the Texas Rangers in December 2001.
"When you get involved with this, you know it's a long process," Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said after spending most of Monday negotiating with agents Darek Braunecker and Mark Rodgers.
"It's no slam dunk. Everybody wants things to happen fast. Sometimes it just doesn't go at the pace you want it to go at," Ricciardi said. [READ] |
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