Clemens Signs With Yankees

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Roger Clemens returned to the New York Yankees on Monday, agreeing to a $10.1 million, one-year contract, The Associated Press learned.

The deal was scheduled to be announced later Monday, according to a baseball official who spoke on the condition he not be identified.

Parts of the salary will be deferred through 2014, making the present-day value of the contract about $8 million.

Clemens, 40, was coming off a $30.9 million, two-year agreement with the Yankees. The pitcher would not accept less than $10 million for next year, and the Yankees would not agree to a deal that counted for more than about $8 million against the luxury tax, the official said.

New York now has eight starting pitchers, a group that also includes Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, David Wells, Cuban defector Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Weaver and Sterling Hitchcock.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said after last week's $32 million, four-year agreement with Contreras that the surplus of starters allows him flexibility to make moves before opening day. Hernandez and Hitchcock appear to be the most likely to be traded.

Clemens' agents, Randy and Alan Hendricks, have said their client was offered $12 million to sign with another team, but the six-time Cy Young Award winner wanted to return to the Yankees. Randy Hendricks has said it's unclear if Clemens will pitch after the 2003 season.

Clemens has 293 career wins, and the Yankees wanted him to win No. 300 in the pinstripes. He was 13-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 29 starts last season, battling leg problems.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- George Steinbrenner wants Derek Jeter to be more focused.

The New York Yankees' owner blamed Jeter's declining production on the shortstop's numerous off-field activities and said he's not quite ready to be the team's first captain since Don Mattingly.

In an interview with the Daily News printed Sunday, Steinbrenner also said he is holding manager Joe Torre and his coaching staff accountable for the team's first-round playoff exit.

"As far as trying and being a warrior, I wouldn't put anyone ahead of Jeter," Steinbrenner was quoted as saying. "But how much better would he be if he didn't have all his other activities?

"I tell him this all the time. I say, 'Jetes, you can't be everything to everybody. You've got to focus on what's important.'

"When I read in the paper that he's out until 3 a.m. in New York City going to a birthday party, I won't lie. That doesn't sit well with me. That was in violation of Joe's curfew. That's the focus I'm talking about."'

Jeter, a four-time All-Star, hit .297 with 18 homers and 75 RBIs last season. He made 14 errors.

"I want to see Jetes truly focused. He wasn't totally focused last year. He had the highest number of errors he's had in some time," Steinbrenner said. "He wasn't himself."

Steinbrenner also wants a better performance by Torre and his staff.

"I just want his coaches to understand that just being a friend of Joe Torre's is not enough," he said. "They've got to produce for him. Joe Torre and his staff have heard the bugle.

"Joe is the greatest friend I've ever had as a manager. ... I don't want to destroy that, but I will tell you this: I want his whole staff to understand that they have got to do better this year."

Steinbrenner also said baseball targeted the Yankees in its new collective bargaining agreement.

"I am a Bud Selig man. I consider him a good friend. ... But while I'm loyal to Bud Selig, the biggest beneficiary in this whole plan are the Milwaukee Brewers. That doesn't seem quite right. I don't know how he sleeps at night sometimes," Steinbrenner said.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Yankees' need to cut payroll ends at the U.S. border.

For the second time in less than a week, baseball's biggest spender broke its budget for a big international acquisition, reaching a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a four-year, $32 million contract with Cuban defector Jose Contreras.

Last week, the Yankees agreed to a three-year, $21 million deal with outfielder Hideki Matsui, Japan's biggest slugger. The agreement with Contreras means the Yankees will have eight starting pitchers on the roster as soon as their deal to re-sign Roger Clemens is completed.

"We couldn't, the right word is we wouldn't, sacrifice the opportunity to sign these talents on the basis of reducing payroll first," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.

New York had been cutting payroll, letting go of relievers Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza, re-signing third baseman Robin Ventura at a pay cut and negotiating with Clemens to take far less than the $15.45 million he averaged under his last deal. Cashman has tried to trade outfielders Rondell White and Raul Mondesi, and pitcher Sterling Hitchcock.

"The mindset is still for me to reduce payroll," Cashman said. "Obviously, when the opportunities to sign Hideki Matsui or Jose Contreras presented themselves, it was time for us to make decisions, to move now and continue to work on cutting the payroll down the line."

Contreras, a right-hander who says he is 31, got the largest deal ever for a Cuban defector, topping the $14.5 million, four-year deal Cleveland gave pitcher Danys Baez three years ago. Contreras throws in the mid-90s, and the Yankees envision him as part of their rotation.

And what a crowded rotation it is.

New York has Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, David Wells, Contreras, former Cuban defector Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Weaver and Hitchcock. The Yankees anticipate that by the Jan. 8 deadline they will re-sign Clemens to a one-year contract worth $8 million to $10 million.

"We just need time to shake things out between now and spring training," Cashman said. "Time will tell. We certainly have an abundance of depth and quality depth. That's a position of strength."

Contreras was the top pitcher on Cuba's national team until he defected in October, and beat the United States on one day's rest in the championship of the 1999 Pan American Games, striking out 13 in eight innings.

"For me, it's an honor to play for the Yankees," Contreras said in San Fernando de Masaya, about 20 miles from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. "I really sacrificed some money to play for the Yankees, but for me they were the team I wanted to be with."

While the Yankees thought Boston offered more, Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said that wasn't case. The Red Sox may now turn to resuming trade talks with Montreal for Bartolo Colon or Javier Vazquez.

"Obviously, we are disappointed," Boston general manager Theo Epstein said after arriving back in Miami from Nicaragua. "We made every reasonable effort and then some to sign Jose Contreras. Jose is a special pitcher, but there is a certain amount of risk involved in signing pitchers who have never thrown an inning of professional baseball. Recognizing that risk, we went to the limit of fiscal sanity with our offer and would not go beyond."

Seattle and Los Angeles also had officials in Nicaragua on Monday, the first day Contreras could negotiate.

"Although we had our head of international scouting, Rene Francisco, there, he was there really to monitor the situation," Dodgers spokesman John Olguin said. "We liked Contreras' ability a lot, although he would really not fit into our budget at this time."

The agreement is subject to Contreras passing a physical and regulatory procedures dealing with Cuban defectors and the U.S. economic boycott of the communist nation.

"Jose Contreras is most certainly the premier amateur pitcher in the world and may be the best pitcher ever in amateur play," said Gordon Blakeley, the Yankees' vice president of international and professional scouting. "He has an exceptional fastball and breaking ball, plus a championship makeup, and we expect him to have great success at the major league level."

Contreras called his family in Cuba to tell them he had signed with the Yankees. He said he told them playing in the big leagues would be no different from pitching against tough competition in his homeland.

"I assured them it would be the same as always," he said.

Contreras left the Cuban team after an Oct. 1 game against the Dominican Republic at Saltillo, Mexico. He entered the United States at San Ysidro, Calif., and was detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego.

He was freed and went to Florida, then left the United States, where he would have been subject to baseball's amateur draft.

Contreras pitched for Cuba's national team for seven years. He was 117-50 with a 2.82 ERA in the Cuban League, according to the Yankees.

His deal calls for a $6 million signing bonus, with $2 million payable in each of the first two years and $1 million in each of the final two years, and annual salaries of $4 million, $7 million, $7 million and $8 million.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Godzilla's getting a new nickname: Bronx Bomber.

Hideki Matsui, intent on wearing the famous Yankees' pinstripes, became the latest Japanese baseball star to join the major leagues, reaching a preliminary agreement Thursday on a $21 million, three-year contract with New York.

"I was nervous for a while because it hadn't been decided what team I would play for," Matsui said Friday at a news conference in Tokyo. "Now, I'm relieved and ready to give my best."

A three-time Most Valuable Player of Japan's Central League, the 28-year-old power-hitting outfielder seemed set on joining the Yankees since August, when New York sent its assistant general manager to Tokyo to scout him.

"He really wants to show he's one of the world's great players," said Matsui's agent, Arn Tellem. "When I first met him, he said he wanted to be on the greatest team here, he wanted to be on the team with the richest history."

The Yomiuri Giants, who drafted Matsui in 1993, were said to have offered a $33 million, four-year deal to keep him.

Matsui had a .304 career average in Japan with 332 homers and 889 RBIs in 1,268 games, and led the Central League last season with 50 homers and 107 RBIs. He had the league's second-highest average at .334.

"He would have had a blank check to stay there," Tellem said.

But at an emotional news conference on Nov. 1, Matsui said he wanted to play in the major leagues. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who in the past had refused to allow his players to take part in all-star tours, made Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams available -- putting them in position to lobby Matsui on behalf of the team.

Under scrutiny during the series, Matsui struggled, hitting just .161 (5-for-31) with no homers and two RBIs.

Matsui, nicknamed Godzilla, is expected to be a corner outfielder for the Yankees, and the entrance to Yankee Stadium was crowded by Japanese reporters on Thursday, anxious for any tidbit about the agreement.

Tellem said he expects Matsui will arrive in the United States in mid-January, and that he will live in Manhattan rather than opt for the suburbs that are popular with many New York players.

Matsui becomes the second Japanese player to join the Yankees, and they hope he's more productive than the first Hideki.

Pitcher Hideki Irabu joined them with greats hopes in 1997 but was dealt to Montreal following the 1999 season -- after Steinbrenner called him a "fat ... toad."

"The Yankees are very fortunate to come to an understanding with one of the world's premier players," general manager Brian Cashman said in a statement. "This demonstrates our organization's commitment to identify and secure talent on a global scale."

New York prepared for the deal last month by signing a cooperative agreement with Yomiuri, Japan's most popular team. The Yankees' YES Network is expected to televise Yomiuri games, and major league baseball is expected to increase the number of Yankees' games available in Japan.

Until now, the Seattle Mariners have been the most popular major league team in Japan because of closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, the 2000 AL Rookie of the Year, and outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, the 2001 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year.

Despite the team's commitment to reduce payroll, New York gave him a contract that will pay $6 million in 2003, $7 million in 2004 and $8 million in 2005.

In addition, Matsui can earn $500,000 per season in performance bonuses. The contract will contain a clause that allows him to become a free agent again after the 2005 season. He must past a physical for the deal to be finalized.

Cashman spent much of Wednesday night negotiating with Tellem, who was in contact with his player in Japan. Other teams were interested, such as the Mets, Baltimore and Boston, but Tellem knew what his client wanted.

"It was only if the Yankee deal did not work out that he really wanted us to pursue other teams," Tellem said.

Seattle general manager Pat Gillick, who has seen Sasaki and Suzuki make the transition, said the longer schedule and long-distance travel are key changes.

"They play 30 less games over there, and most of their travel is by bullet train," he said. "Probably the biggest difference is being on the road so much."

Comfort also is a factor.

"We have a lot of help around, a lot of interpreters," Gillick said. "We've got actually about three. Sasaki has one, Ich has one, and we have a spare one -- one of our girls in PR also speaks Japanese. So they're not alone at all."

Notes: The Yankees must decide by Friday whether to offer 2003 contracts to RHP Orlando Hernandez and OF Shane Spencer. As of Thursday, the team was leaning toward keeping El Duque but cutting Spencer loose. "I could see either way," said Spencer's agent, David Trimble. "I don't see anything bad for him, either way. It's one of those things you can't control."