Veteran Glavine inks 1-year deal with Braves
Last Updated: Friday, February 20, 2009 | 11:40 AM ET
CBC Sports
Tom Glavine, baseball's active wins leader, will be back with the Braves next year. (Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) Veteran left-hander Tom Glavine will be back with the Atlanta Braves next season after inking a one-year, $1-million US contract, the Atlanta club announced Friday.
The contract includes another $3.5 million in possible bonuses.
Glavine, who turns 43 next month, is baseball's active wins leader with 305. He's ranked fourth among lefties in Major League Baseball history.
An elbow injury cut last season short for Glavine, who finished the year with a 2-4 record and a 5.54 ERA in 13 starts.
"I had a sense of unfinished business," he said. "I didn't want my career to end the way it did last year."
Glavine won't join training camp for at least another week while he rehabs in Atlanta following an operation that repaired his left elbow and shoulder, the Braves report.
Glavine and the Braves were expected to reach an agreement because Glavine said he wanted to end his career in Atlanta, and was willing to take a significant cut from the $8 million he made last year. He also agreed to defer some of his potential bonus money to give the Braves room in the budget to go after a power-hitting outfielder.
"There were never any discussions in which another club was brought up," general manager Frank Wren said. "The motivation and focus was always to try to get something done here. We appreciated that."
Glavine will be Atlanta's fifth starter behind Derek Lowe, Jair Jurrjens, Javier Vazquez and Kenshin Kawakami. He'll have extra time to rehab his elbow and shoulder because the Braves won't need a fifth starter until April 19.
"I don't necessarily want to be the guy who has to pitch 220 innings and win every time he goes to the mound," Glavine said. "I'm looking forward to this stage of my career where I don't have to deal with that kind of pressure and can be more of a complement to our rotation."
Glavine, a 10-time all-star, made his major league debut with Atlanta in 1987 and spent 16 seasons with the Braves before signing with the New York Mets. After five seasons in New York he returned to the Braves last year.
Before last season, Glavine had started 669 games and completed 4,350 innings without being placed on the disabled list.
With files from the Associated Press
