NEW YORK (AP) -The Yankees are waiting for Mariano Rivera.
The closer, who turns 38 in two weeks, hasn’t accepted a $45 million, three-year offer from New York, and the Yankees say Rivera’s agent, Fernando Cuza, wants general manager Brian Cashman to offer a fourth season.
“Brian has been talking to him off and on a couple times. We’re just waiting to see what happens,” senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said.
The Yankees have no plans to increase their proposal, which is over $4 million more than any closer currently makes.
“It’s a tremendous offer, and it’s worth staying for,” Steinbrenner said. “If I didn’t want him back, I wouldn’t have made that offer.”
The Yankees also are working to put Alex Rodriguez’s $275 million, 10-year contract on paper. Team president Randy Levine and chief operating officer Lonn Trost are discussing with the commissioner’s office how to craft a provision that would allow A-Rod to share revenue the team would take in if he breaks Barry Bonds’ career home run record.
The rest of A-Rod’s contract is falling into place.
“At this point it’s just formalities, I think,” Steinbrenner said.
Steinbrenner also said an agreement with backup catcher Jose Molina should be finalized soon.
In other Yankees’ news, Melky Cabrera said he would like to play center regularly from the start of spring training. Then-manager Joe Torre inserted Cabrera into center after Johnny Damon’s slow start this year, and the Yankees plan to stay with the 23-year-old Cabrera next season.
“I thank God and Joe Torre for the opportunity I received in my second year with the Yankees,” Cabrera said in the Dominican Republic.
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Associated Press Writer Dionisio Soldevila in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, contributed to this report.
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