Mets’ Darling Gets $1.05 Million; Blue Retires

Pitcher Ron Darling of the New York Mets won a $1.05-million arbitration award Thursday, while Vida Blue, who signed less than a month ago with the Oakland A’s as a free agent, announced his retirement.

Darling, whose case was heard in New York by arbitrator Jack Sands, lost his arbitration case last year and received a salary of $440,000. This year, the Mets had offered the right-hander $800,000 after he posted a 15-6 record in their championship season.

Blue, 37, who had been penciled into the starting rotation by A’s Manager Tony La Russa, issued this statement: “Over the past few years I have been contemplating retirement. So with mixed emotions and slight remorse, the day has finally come when I will no longer be playing major league baseball. My physical condition is good, so while I am still in good health I have decided to retire.”

Meanwhile, Steve Carlton, the four-time Cy Young Award winner released by the Philadelphia Phillies last June, will get another chance to make the team as an unsigned non-roster player. Carlton, 42, pitched for the San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox after leaving the Phillies. He became a free agent at the end of the 1986 season.