Cubs Close the Deal With Reliever Rojas

The Chicago Cubs, already active in the free-agent market in an effort to rebuild their pitching staff, added a key member Tuesday when right-handed closer Mel Rojas agreed to a $13.75-million, three-year contract.

Rojas, who saved 36 games in 40 chances last season for the Montreal Expos, was 7-4 with a 3.22 earned-run average in 81 innings, striking out 92. He has 109 saves in seven seasons.

“We feel we have one of the best bullpens in the National League,” said Ed Lynch, the Cub general manager.

Rojas, 30, gets a $250,000 signing bonus and $4.5 million in each of the next three seasons.

His arrival could send Chicago closer Turk Wendell, who saved 18 games last season, back to the starting rotation. The Cubs have also added left-handed starter Terry Mulholland, signed to a one-year, $2.3-million deal Monday.

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The Houston Astros traded pitchers Todd Jones and Doug Brocail to the Detroit Tigers in a nine-player swap, the largest since a 12-player deal between Houston and San Diego in December of 1994.

The Astros also sent shortstop Orlando Miller and outfielder Brian Hunter to the Tigers for catcher Brad Ausmus, pitchers Jose Lima, C.J. Nitkowski and Trever Miller and minor league outfielder Daryle Ward. The Tigers also will receive cash or a player to be named.

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The Dodgers will open their spring training schedule Feb. 28 against the National League champion Atlanta Braves at West Palm Beach, Fla. They will play three exhibitions against the Braves and, once again, were given permission to play a home game every Sunday at Holman Stadium in Vero Beach, Fla.

Although the Dodgers and Angels will play each other during the regular season, the first involving interleague play, the annual Freeway Series will still be played, with a game March 28 at Dodger Stadium, and games March 29 and 30 at Anaheim Stadium.

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Free-agent pitcher Dennis Cook agreed to a $1.7-million, two-year contract with the Florida Marlins. Left-hander Cook, 34, was 5-2 with a 4.09 ERA with Texas last season.

Florida also acquired right-handed pitchers Ed Collins from the Milwaukee Brewers and Robert Rodgers from the Boston Red Sox to complete earlier trades.

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The Cleveland Indians re-signed relief pitcher Eric Plunk to a $5.55-million, three-year contract. . . . Kansas City Royal Manager Bob Boone was given a two-year contract extension, through 1999, despite a last-place finish last season.

Olympics

Officials of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games said they are closing the books with a surplus of less than $10 million.

ACOG raised $1.7 billion from private sources to put on the Olympics, and the federal government had estimated it would spend $227 million, mostly on security and transportation, to support the games.

Compared to the Olympic finances of other cities, Atlanta’s modest surplus would put it somewhere in the middle.

The last Olympics in the United States, the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, turned a $215 million profit, largely with the help of private sponsors.

But two decades after the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, which cost about $1.7 billion, the province of Quebec still owes more than $300 million.

The International Olympic Committee gets half of any surplus, the U.S. Olympic Committee gets 25% and ACOG splits the rest with the city of Atlanta.

Names in the News

Alex Solis won the 1997 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, given annually to a rider whose career and character are a tribute to thoroughbred racing. . . . Cori Carson, who led Marymount University of Arlington, Va., into the round of 16 in the NCAA Division III basketball tournament a year after undergoing a liver transplant, was named winner of the Honda inspiration award, to be presented Jan. 13 in Nashville at the NCAA convention. . . . Among the 11 finalists for the Honda-Broderick Cup, presented annually to the collegiate woman athlete of the year, are softball player Jenny Dalton of Glendale and the University of Arizona, soccer player Shannon MacMillan of Poway and the University of Portland, and swimmer Kristine Quance of Northridge and USC.