Maddux, Cubs Agree to Deal

Greg Maddux is going back where he started, deciding to sign with the Chicago Cubs, the Associated Press learned Tuesday night.

The four-time Cy Young Award winner agreed to a $24-million, three-year deal with the Cubs, rejoining the team that gave him his start in the majors, a source close the negotiations said on condition of anonymity.

The deal is pending a physical, but the 37-year-old Maddux is expected to report today with the rest of the Cub pitchers and catchers.

The addition of Maddux, who is 11 wins shy of 300, gives the Cubs one of the strongest rotations in the game. He’ll join Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Matt Clement and Carlos Zambrano -- a foursome that took the Cubs within five outs of the World Series a year ago.

Maddux may not be the pitcher he was in his youth, but he is still one of the game’s most effective ones. He had a 16-11 record with a 3.96 earned-run average last season -- his 16th straight year with at least 15 wins.

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Tampa Bay Devil Ray prospect Josh Hamilton was suspended until March 19 and fined for violating Major League Baseball’s drug policy.

Hamilton was the first pick in the 1999 amateur draft.

The Devil Rays had invited the 22-year-old outfielder to spring training, and had a locker set up for him with No. 31. But the team did it while awaiting word from Commissioner Bud Selig’s office on whether Hamilton would be allowed to report with position players on Friday.

“The organization is not in a position to make any further statements concerning this issue,” the team said in a brief statement.

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Major League Baseball does not have to rehire 10 umpires still out of work following a 1999 mass resignation, a three-judge federal appeals panel ruled in Philadelphia.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision made in December 2002 by a U.S. District Court. Both sides appealed, with the commissioner’s office claiming it should not have been ordered to rehire nine other umpires with back pay.

Richie Phillips’ Major League Umpires Assn. called for the mass resignation in July 1999 as a bargaining tactic. The move backfired when baseball accepted the resignations and hired new umpires to replace them that September.

Still trying to regain their jobs were Bob Davidson, Tom Hallion, Jim Evans, Dale Ford, Richie Garcia, Eric Gregg, Ed Hickox, Mark Johnson, Ken Kaiser and Larry McCoy.

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The San Diego Padres picked up Manager Bruce Bochy’s option for 2005.

Bochy is 694-746 (.482) in nine seasons as manager. He’s in his 22nd straight year with the organization, as a player, minor league manager, big league coach and manager.

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Gabe White and the New York Yankees settled their salary arbitration case, agreeing to a one-year contract that guarantees the reliever $2,150,000.

White gets $1,925,000 this season, and the deal contains a $1,925,000 mutual option for 2005 with a $200,000 buyout. If the Yankees exercise the option and White declines, he forfeits the buyout.

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The Kansas City Royals signed right-handed reliever Rudy Seanez to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

Seanez, 35, pitched last year with the Boston Red Sox, his sixth major league team. He was 0-1 with a 6.23 ERA.