Halladay Gets $42-Million Deal

Roy Halladay could have waited two more seasons and gone elsewhere. Instead, the American League Cy Young Award winner decided long-term security was more important.

“I want to win here and be part of a team that builds something rather than going out and just trying to sign with a team that has the best chance to win,” he said Thursday in Toronto after agreeing to a $42-million, four-year contract.

Halladay, 22-7 with a 3.25 earned-run average last season, gets $6 million this season, $10.5 million in 2005, $12.7 million in 2006 and $12.8 million in 2007. He would have been eligible for free agency after the 2005 season.

“If you have one of the top 10 pitchers in baseball, that’s a commodity that you don’t want to let get away,” Blue Jay General Manager J.P. Ricciardi said.

Halladay made $3.9 million last season, when he set a club record for wins. He had asked for $9 million in salary arbitration, and the Blue Jays offered $6.5 million. If they had not reached an agreement, the case would have been decided by arbitrators next month.

A durable right-hander whose 266 innings in 2003 led the American League, Halladay tied the club record set by Roger Clemens by winning 15 consecutive decisions last season.

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Florida Marlin right-hander A.J. Burnett took another step in his recovery from reconstructive elbow surgery when he threw off a mound for the first time in nine months.

Burnett, who had ligament-replacement surgery April 28, said his rehabilitation was going so well that he hoped to rejoin the rotation for the opening of the season.

“I’m not going to rush it, but in a perfect world I could be ready by then,” Burnett said after throwing 23 fastballs at 75% of his usual velocity in the Marlin bullpen at Pro Player Stadium. “Today it went nice and easy. Nothing hurts. But I’m looking at the big picture. I’m ready to strike somebody out.”

Burnett went 12-9 in 2002, when he led the majors with five shutouts.

He was 0-2 last season with a 4.70 ERA in four starts before being sidelined because of a torn ligament in his right elbow.

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Orlando Hernandez worked out in front of scouts for about 20 major league teams at the University of Miami, and the free-agent pitcher said he was nearing a full recovery from shoulder surgery. The right-hander, who sat out all of last season, threw 35 pitches.

“I’m not 100%, but by spring training I should be 100%,” Hernandez said through an interpreter. “I’m at about 85%. I’ve been coming back quicker and quicker every day.”

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Damian Rolls agreed to terms on an $800,000, one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, avoiding a salary arbitration hearing. The 26-year-old infielder/outfielder sought $900,000 and the Devil Rays offered $700,000. The difference was the smallest among the 27 players who exchanged figures with their teams in arbitration Tuesday.... Left-hander Jim Parque agreed to terms with the Arizona Diamondbacks and was invited to spring training. He went 1-1 with an 11.94 ERA in five starts last year with the Devil Rays, who released him Sept. 12. The former UCLA pitcher was 30-33 from 1998 to 2002 with the Chicago White Sox, including 13-6 in 2000.

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Tommy John was hired to manage the Staten Island Yankees of the New York-Penn League.

He was the pitching instructor for the Eastern League’s Harrisburg Senators in 2002, then managed Maryvale in the 2002 Arizona Fall League. He was pitching coach of the Pacific Coast League’s Edmonton Trappers last season.

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St. Louis Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa was unhurt when a small jet he was in skidded off a snow-covered runway at Pueblo Memorial Airport in Colorado.

La Russa was on his way to California after a banquet of the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America when the plane landed to refuel.