Rodriguez wins third MVP award

Alex Rodriguez is headed back to the New York Yankees as the American League’s most valuable player.

Rodriguez won his third AL MVP award Monday, easily defeating Detroit’s Magglio Ordonez.

Rodriguez had 26 first-place votes and 382 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America. Ordonez had two firsts and 258 points, and was followed by the Angels’ Vladimir Guerrero (203) and Boston’s David Ortiz (177).

Rodriguez became only the ninth player to win the MVP three or more times. Barry Bonds holds the record with seven, and Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial and Mike Schmidt won three apiece.

Rodriguez won his first MVP in 2003, his last season with Texas. He also won the award while with the Yankees in 2005.

Rodriguez earned a $1.5 million bonus for winning the award, which completes the contract he opted out of last month. Rodriguez earned $185.45 million over seven years in that deal, including bonuses, an average of $26.49 million annually.

Rodriguez hit .314 and led the majors with 54 home runs and 156 runs batted in.

Mariano Rivera told the Yankees he is accepting their $45-million, three-year offer and will remain with his only major league team.

The closer, who turns 38 on Nov. 29, gets an average salary more than $4 million above what any other reliever currently makes.

Rivera’s agreement is pending a physical.

World Series MVP Mike Lowell is staying with the Boston Red Sox, meaning the reigning champions will try to repeat with all their key players from 2007.

The Red Sox and their popular third baseman reached a preliminary agreement on a three-year, $37.5-million contract, according to two people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.

While the sides have reached the outline of the deal, there are still minor issues to be worked out and as of Monday evening there still was not a signed letter of agreement between the team and Lowell’s agents. Team spokesman John Blake declined to comment.

The San Diego Padres have finalized a $10-million, one-year contract with Greg Maddux.

Maddux, who turns 42 on April 14, agreed to terms of the deal two weeks ago.

Backup catcher Jason LaRue and the St. Louis Cardinals agreed to an $850,000, one-year contract. The 33-year-old LaRue, who will play behind starter Yadier Molina, replaces Gary Bennett as the backup.

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AL MVP voting

First-, second- and third-place votes and total points on a 14-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis:

*--* PLAYER 1ST 2ND 3RD TOT Alex Rodriguez, New York 26 2 - 382 Magglio Ordonez, Detroit 2 22 4 258 Vladimir Guerrero, Angels - 3 10 203 David Ortiz, Boston - 1 11 177 Mike Lowell, Boston - - 1 126 Jorge Posada, New York - - - 112 Victor Martinez, Cleveland - - - 103 Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle - - - 89 Carlos Pena, Tampa Bay - - 2 64 Curtis Granderson, Detroit - - - 51 Derek Jeter, New York - - - 17 Grady Sizemore, Cleveland - - - 15 J.J. Putz, Seattle - - - 12 C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland - - - 11 Torii Hunter, Minnesota - - - 5 Orlando Cabrera, Angels - - - 5 Bobby Abreu, New York - - - 4 John Lackey, Angels - - - 4 Placido Polanco, Detroit - - - 4 Justin Morneau, Minnesota - - - 3 Chone Figgins, Angels - - - 3 Josh Beckett, Boston - - - 2 Fausto Carmona, Cleveland - - - 1 Frank Thomas, Toronto - - - 1 *--*