Righetti Near $4.3-Million Contract

Relief pitcher Dave Righetti is close to signing a three-year contract worth $4.3 million, making him the highest-paid pitcher in New York Yankees’ history.

Last Saturday, Righetti accepted arbitration with the Yankees. He had turned down a two-year $2.7-million offer from New York and a last-minute offer from the Dodgers.

Righetti and his agent, Bill Goodstein, were holding out for a three-year contract all along.

According to WNBC-TV, Righetti will sign the three-year contract today.

In today’s editions, The New York Times reported Righetti was working on a package that would pay him $1.3 million in 1988, $1.45 million in 1989 and $1.55 million in 1990, plus bonuses which could total $200,000 each year. Righetti would receive $50,000 each for winning the Cy Young Award, the fireman of the year award, the Rolaids award as best reliever or the World Series MVP Award.

The Dodgers, San Francisco, Texas, Oakland and Cleveland were among the clubs that made offers to Righetti, who had 46 saves in 1986 to set a major league record. “I’m staying mostly because other clubs didn’t sweeten the pot until the last couple of minutes,” Righetti said. “It was like, all of a sudden, they were on the telephone, probably because they had heard we were ready to go to arbitration. It was just too late.”