Dodgers Sign Beltre, Avoid Arbitration

The Dodgers avoided arbitration with third baseman Adrian Beltre on Friday, agreeing to terms on a one-year, $3.7-million contract.

The Dodgers also signed utility player Terry Shumpert to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, and though they didn’t come to terms with their final arbitration-eligible player, reliever Giovanni Carrara, the sides are not far apart; Carrara asked for $880,000, and the Dodgers offered $725,000.

Beltre, 23, made $2.3 million in 2002, when he hit .257 with a career-high 21 home runs and 75 runs batted in. His season was marked by prolonged batting slumps, occasional lapses on defense and a strong second-half surge.

Shumpert, 36, underwent minor knee surgery in October. He hit .235 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in 106 games for the Colorado Rockies last season. He has played every position but pitcher and catcher in his 13-year big-league career.

-- Mike DiGiovanna

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Angel reliever Lou Pote is close to an agreement on a one-year, $1-million contract to play for Japan’s Hanshin Tigers this year.

Pote, 31, had a 3.22 earned-run average in 31 games with the Angels last season, but he was sent to triple-A Salt Lake in July. He was unlikely to make the roster this year and was out of options, so the Angels would risk losing him on waivers.

Also Friday, the Angels exchanged salary proposals with reliever Scott Schoeneweis. The pitcher asked for $1.55 million and the team offered $1.25 million, with a settlement likely at or near the midpoint of $1.4 million. If a settlement is not reached, an arbitration hearing would be held next month.

-- Bill Shaikin

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Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux asked for $16 million in arbitration, and Minnesota outfielder Torii Hunter got the biggest deal among the dozens of players who settled their cases, agreeing to a $32-million, four-year contract with the Twins.

The Braves countered Maddux’s figure with a $13.5-million offer, leaving them with the biggest spread between any player and team.

Maddux’s former teammate, Kevin Millwood, settled for $9.9 million for one year with the Philadelphia Phillies. Outfielder J.D. Drew signed a one-year $3.7-million contract with St. Louis.

College Football

Outland Trophy winner Rien Long of Washington State intends to skip his senior season and make himself available for the NFL draft.

Cougar Coach Bill Doba disclosed Long’s plans to the Spokesman-Review. The 6-foot-6, 286-pound defensive tackle played all season despite a knee injury and will undergo surgery this month.

Derrick Nix, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in three of his four seasons at Southern Mississippi, requires a kidney transplant and won’t play football again.

Nix, a 22-year-old senior, has a degenerative kidney condition that forced him to sit out the 2001 season and most of 2000.

He returned to play in 11 games last season, rushing for 1,194 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Miscellany

A sports utility vehicle carrying players on Yale’s baseball and football teams slammed into a tractor-trailer on a snow-slick highway, killing three students and injuring six others at Fairfield, Conn.

Kyle Burnat, a sophomore relief pitcher from College Park, Ga., was killed in the chain-reaction crash on Interstate 95 that involved four vehicles, state police said. The tractor-trailer had lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic at about 5:30 a.m.

One of the other students killed was junior Sean Fenton, a 2000 graduate of Corona del Mar High. Fenton, 20, was the Times’ Orange County discus thrower of the year in 2000 and lettered in football at Yale as a freshman.

The crash near Bridgeport led Yale and Brown to postpone Friday night’s basketball game between the schools until today.

In skiing, Stephan Eberharter of Austria won at Wengen, Switzerland, for his second consecutive World Cup downhill victory and overtook American Bode Miller for the overall standings lead. Hermann Maier of Austria was 22nd in his first downhill since almost losing a leg in a motorcycle crash in August 2001.

In sailing, Alinghi of Switzerland takes a 4-1 lead over Oracle of San Francisco into Sunday’s race of the best-of-nine America’s Cup challenger final at Auckland, New Zealand.