Slugger Sosa Optimistic About Long-Term Deal

A history of contentious negotiations has given way to what Sammy Sosa’s agents said Monday is “cautious optimism” that a multiyear contract extension with the Chicago Cubs can be completed before the season starts.

Sosa, saying the right things on his first day in the Cubs’ camp, agreed with agents Adam Katz and Tom Reich.

“Whether it’s resolved or not,” he said, “I have the responsibility to come and play, but I have the good feeling that everything is going to be OK, and that sooner or later it will be resolved. I’m here now and I don’t plan to go anywhere.”

A source familiar with the most recent talks between Sosa’s agents and team President Andy MacPhail said the framework of a deal is in place and that Sosa, who will make $12 million this year and is eligible for free agency when the season ends, seems agreeable to a four-year package, rather than five or six. The Cubs are believed to be offering $72 million over the four years, narrowing their differences to compromising range.

“The equation for us is very simple and hasn’t changed,” MacPhail said. “How much can we afford to put into one player at the expense of 24 and still try to win?”

Katz said there is no assurance a deal is imminent but he is more optimistic than he was two or three months ago.

“Sammy has always said his first, second and third choice is to stay with the Cubs, and I always thought it was best,” Katz added. “Sammy is a guy who has always loved the community and has a special relationship with the community, and there’s an emotional cost to leaving.”

There has been speculation that Sosa exercised his rights as a player with 10 years in the majors and five with the same club to block a three-way trade that would have sent him to the Dodgers and Gary Sheffield to the New York Mets. Katz said that wasn’t true, that a trade would have had to be in place before Sosa could have been approached about his 10-and-five rights, and there was no trade in place.

However, sources with the Dodgers and Mets insist that it never got to his 10-and-five rights because the Dodgers were told Sosa would not accept a trade unless he received a contract extension, and the Dodgers refused.