BASEBALL NOTES

Rodriguez wants the Mariners to bring in the fences at Safeco Field even if he doesn’t re-sign with Seattle.

“With or without me, they have to bring them in substantially to make the game better at Safeco,” the free agent shortstop said on his Web site. “I couldn’t care less either way, but it’s not good for baseball. Our numbers don’t lie. We were under 100 home runs at home and our home run production was terrible at home.”

Boras said that he wanted to emphasize that Rodriguez was just offering an opinion about Safeco and wasn’t trying to negotiate shorter fences there.

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Turk Wendell was disappointed with one aspect of his new contract with the New York Mets: He won’t get to play a year for free.

“That’s still definitely in my hopes and dreams,” the reliever said after agreeing on a three-year contract worth a penny short of $9.4 million.

“Are we taping this conference call?” General Manager Steve Phillips shot back. “We hope this will be a trend in the game, but there are some rules with 20% cuts and those sorts of things. We’ll certainly be a willing participant when that time comes.”

Wendell’s plan to play for free was thwarted by baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, which calls for a minimum salary.

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The San Diego Padres signed left-hander Scott Karl to a $625,000, one-year contract that gives him the chance to make $400,000 more in performance bonuses.

Karl, who lives in San Diego County, is 54-56 with a 4.81 earned-run average in six major league seasons with Milwaukee, Colorado and the Angels.

In another move, the Padres traded right-hander Brandon Kolb to the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop Santiago Perez and either a player to be named or cash.

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Reliever Jeff Nelson of the New York Yankees is close to agreement on a three-year contract with the Seattle Mariners worth $10.5 million to $11 million.

Seattle and Nelson’s agents were working on finalizing the contract, and the deal is likely to be announced next week. “We’ve been talking and we’re close,” Mariner General Manager Pat Gillick said.

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The proposed $112 million sale of a controlling interest of the Toronto Blue Jays has ben approved by baseball owners.

Rogers Communications Inc. agreed to buy 80% of the Blue Jays from Interbrew SA, which became the team’s controlling owner in 1995, when it purchased Labatt Brewing Co.

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A jury ordered two companies to pay $99.2 million to the widows of three ironworkers killed when a crane collapsed at the construction site of Milwaukee’s new stadium, Miller Park.

All but $157,500 of Friday’s award must be paid by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of America. The company was held responsible, along with Lampson International Ltd., for the July 1999 accident that killed William DeGrave, Jerome Starr and Jeffrey Wischer.