Twins Reject Morris’ Contract Ideas; He Will Talk to the Yankees Next

Jack Morris and the Minnesota Twins were unable to reach agreement on a contract Tuesday, and Morris’ agent said the free-agent right-hander would turn his attention to the New York Yankees.

Morris, who has won more games than any pitcher in the 1980s, offered the Twins two-, three- and four-year contract deals, but the Twins rejected all proposals in an afternoon meeting, Richard Moss said.

Morris is scheduled to meet with representatives of the Yankees in New York on Thursday.

Moss said he proposed a two-year contract for exactly the same salary as that of left-hander Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers--$1.85 million in 1987 and $2.05 million in 1988. Or, Moss said, Morris was willing to sign a three-year deal for $1.8 million a year or a four-year deal for $1.7 million a year.

“We said, and we believe, that those proposals are reasonable,” Moss said. “We said that if there was any disagreement, we were willing to have the salary determined by impartial arbitration. We indicated over and over again that all we wanted to get was a fair and proper agreement.

“In the meeting in (Twin owner Carl) Pohlad’s office, (Twin executive vice president) Andy MacPhail said we couldn’t agree to that. The response we got was that anything we said was unacceptable,” Moss said.

The Twins were the first team Morris met with after announcing he would choose from among four teams--the Twins, Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Angels.