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Glavine Agrees To $8.5 Million A Year Braves Make Star Left-Hander The Game’s Best-Paid Pitcher

Associated Press

Tom Glavine will become baseball’s highest-paid pitcher after agreeing Wednesday to a $34 million, four-year contract with the Atlanta Braves.

Glavine’s agent, Gregg Clifton, said the deal gives his client $8.5 million a year and includes a club option for a fifth year at $8 million. The deal puts Glavine, a former Cy Young winner, in a tie for fourth-highest among major league salaries.

Glavine, in the final year of a five-year contract, is earning $5 million this year. He told Atlanta television station WAGA that while nothing had been signed, he expects the deal to be completed today.

“I don’t see anything to hold it up,” Glavine said.

“In this day and age with players moving all over the place, it’s nice to have an opportunity to spend your entire career in one city. The fans have been great. The organization has been great,” Glavine said.

In March, Glavine turned down an offer for a three-year deal in the $20 million-$22 million range.

Clifton met with team officials Wednesday afternoon after the Braves’ 3-2 victory over the Montreal Expos.

“We’ve been in ongoing negotiations since before spring training. Tom had always expressed the desire to remain a Brave. I think this is a perfect situation when a player can became the highest-paid player at his position in his sport and still stay with the organization and the teammates he wants to be with,” Clifton said.

The 31-year-old left-hander, who won the N.L. Cy Young Award in 1991, was baseball’s winningest pitcher from 1991 to 1996 with 106 victories. In nine starts this season, Glavine, who is in his 10th season with Atlanta, is 5-2 with a 2.08 ERA.

The agreement would still leave the Braves with the problem of trying to re-sign four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux.

Maddux is eligible to be a free agent at the end of the season. Some executives have speculated that the Las Vegas native may be interested in returning to the Chicago Cubs or signing with the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks.