Crisp and Red Sox Agree to Extension

Coco Crisp agreed Wednesday to a $15.5-million, three-year contract extension with the Boston Red Sox.

Crisp, on the disabled list because of a broken finger, already was signed for this year at $2.75 million. The extension contains a $1-million signing bonus and salaries of $3.5 million in 2007, $4.75 million in 2008 and $5.75 million in 2009. The deal contains an $8-million team option for 2010 with a $500,000 buyout and contains salary escalator provisions.

Before the extension, Crisp’s contract was set to expire at the end of the year, but he would have been eligible for arbitration through 2009, which would have kept him in Boston until then.

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Seattle Mariner outfielder Matt Lawton was activated after serving his 10-day suspension for testing positive for steroids.

Lawton was not in the lineup for the game against the Cleveland Indians, but he was relieved to be eligible to play again.

Lawton was suspended on Nov. 2, 2005, for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Because he tested positive under baseball’s former program, Lawton had to sit out the first 10 days of this season.

Under the new, tougher rules, a positive test would have meant a 50-game suspension.

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The Oakland Athletics are in the final stages of negotiating to build a new ballpark in Fremont on land leased by Cisco Systems Inc., a city official said.

Team’s co-owner Lew Wolff wants to build a ballpark village, including thousands of homes and a retail center on a 143-acre parcel of land, City Manager Fred Diaz said.

Wolff is interested in moving the team because it appears unlikely the city of Oakland will approve a new stadium.