Fielder Agrees to $4.5 Million : Baseball: Tigers head off arbitration with largest single-season contract in game’s history. McGwire takes a $225,000 cut.

Cecil Fielder agreed to the largest single-season contract in baseball history on Tuesday, settling with the Detroit Tigers for $4.5 million.

Fielder, who had 95 homers and 265 runs batted in during the past two seasons, had asked for an arbitration record $5.4 million, and Detroit had offered $3.2 million. The deal, which makes Fielder No. 10 on the salary list by average annual value, tops the previous high for a single-season contract, Nolan Ryan’s $4.4-million 1992 salary with the Texas Rangers.

“Both sides agreed that we’re going to continue talking about a multiyear deal,” said Jim Bronner, one of Fielder’s agents. “This puts him in good position for a multiyear deal.”

Fielder, 28, is eligible for free agency after the 1993 season.

The Tigers reportedly offered him a four-year, $17-million contract. But the offer was made only a few days before Bobby Bonilla signed a five-year contract with the New York Mets worth more than $29 million.

Fielder then rejected the Tigers’ offer. Bonilla had 18 homers and 100 RBIs last season. Fielder hit 44 homers with 133 RBIs.

This is the first year Fielder has been eligible for arbitration. He earned $1.75 million in 1991 on the final year of the two-year, $3-million contract he signed with the Tigers after leaving Japan following the 1989 season.

Five other players in arbitration agreed to one-year contracts Tuesday, leaving 103 remaining.

Among them, Oakland first baseman Mark McGwire took a rare cut, agreeing to $2.65 million, halfway between his request for $2.85 million and the Athletics’ offer of $2.45 million. McGwire made $2,875,000 in 1991, when he hit .201 with 22 homers and 75 RBIs.

Reliever Mike Maddux and the San Diego Padres settled at $510,000, a $400,000 raise.

Pittsburgh outfielder-first baseman Lloyd McClendon agreed at $465,000; outfielder Mark Carreon, obtained by Detroit last week in a trade with the New York Mets, settled at $355,000, and catcher Joe Girardi and the Chicago Cubs agreed at $300,000.

The Dodgers also made a move. Free-agent infielder Dave Anderson agreed Tuesday to a minor league contract with the Albuquerque Dukes of the Pacific Coast League.

Anderson, 31, was drafted by the Dodgers during the first round of the June, 1981, free-agent draft. He batted .232 in 662 games with the Dodgers and is expected to have a chance to make the major league club, where he would provide experience to an otherwise young infield.

In 1990, Anderson signed with the San Francisco Giants as a free agent. He batted .350 in 60 games. In 1991, he batted .248 in 100 games for the Giants.