It is reported that the Toronto Blue Jays have offered a huge mega-bucks deal to re-sign outfielder Vernon Wells.

Wells, an 8 year veteran who is seen as a consistent hitter and 100 RBI man with a lifetime batting average of .288, seems very much wanted by the Blue Jays.

*Stats from Baseball Almanac;

• 2002   159    23   100   .275
  2003   161    33   117   .313
  2004   134    23    67    .272
  2005   156    28    97    .269
  2006   154    32   106   .303
  Lifetime 8 yrs  141 HRs    .288 BA

Associated Press Writer Rob Gillies reports;

The Toronto Blue Jays have offered All-Star center fielder Vernon Wells a contract extension worth more $120 million.

“We like him a lot and we’re going to try to keep him,” general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Wednesday.

Ricciardi declined to give specifics. Wells told the Globe and Mail that it would be worth between $126 million and $136 million and extend for seven or eight years. That would make it the sixth-largest contract in baseball history, trailing only  Alex Rodriguez ($252 million), Derek Jeter ($189 million),  Manny Ramirez ($160 million), Todd Helton ($141.5 million) and Alfonso Soriano ($136 million).

“The guy is a Gold Glover. He’s a .300 hitter, a home run hitter and an RBI hitter who bats third in our lineup,” Blue Jays president Paul Godfrey said. “It would be very nice to sign Vernon Wells to a long-term contract.”

Wells hit .303 with 32 homers and 106 RBIs this year and is due $5.6 million next season.

As negotiations continue, Jeff Blair of Globe and Mail reports;

The Toronto Blue Jays have made a formal contract offer to Vernon Wells that would… likely exceed the average annual value of the free-agent deal Alfonso Soriano signed with the Chicago Cubs this winter.

“We have made a formal offer,” Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Tuesday night, although he refused to confirm a report on Yahoo.com that said he had “floated” the idea of a seven-year, $126-million (all figures U.S.) contract to his Gold Glove centre fielder.

Alex Rodriguez’s 10-year, $252-million package signed in 2001 remains the biggest contract in baseball history.

Wells, who turned 28 last Friday, is not eligible for free agency until after the 2007 season. But the Blue Jays are interested in seeing if they can sign him early.

If they can’t, the team is left with a difficult decision: keep Wells, who hit .303 with 32 home runs and 106 runs batted-in last season, in the hope that he helps them win a playoff spot out of the tough American League East Division. Or trade him, with an eye toward bolstering its starting rotation. Ricciardi has said he would like an indication by the new year whether signing Wells is a realistic goal.

In an interview Tuesday, Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey said Wells’s status is “a very major issue in the mind of the media.”

Wells was left off the Blue Jays’ annual Christmas card and has not figured in any of the team’s off-season advertising.

He will make $5.6-million under the terms of his existing contract, and the Blue Jays have already had trade feelers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 5:26 am and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, Off-Season Deals, Trades, Free Agency, Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.