As baseball players resumed their grievance to...

As baseball players resumed their grievance to stop owners from eliminating teams, union head Donald Fehr said that bargaining for a new labor contract will probably start next week.

Commissioner Bud Selig gave Fehr a brief outline of what owners want on Dec. 3, but management hasn’t made any formal proposals. Fehr said that week that Selig gave him “three or four sentences of ideas scratched out on the back of a piece of paper.”

“They have recapitulated that in a letter without any significantly greater detail,” Fehr said Thursday. “We’ll see what happens.”

Fehr said talks probably would start Tuesday or Wednesday.

Owners could make their central economic proposal public when they meet Jan. 16-17 in Phoenix.

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The St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a three-year, $27-million contract with starting pitcher Matt Morris.

Morris, 22-8 with a 3.16 ERA in his first year as a starter since 1998, was eligible for salary arbitration and could have become a free agent after the 2002 season.

He did not use an agent and negotiated the deal himself. He gets $4 million this year, $10.5 million in 2003 and $12.5 million in 2004.

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Mike Morgan, the 42-year-old pitcher who earned a World Series ring with Arizona, agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with the Diamondbacks, his 12th major league team.

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The Minnesota Twins called a news conference for today to announce their new manager, with Ron Gardenhire expected to get the job.