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Ken Griffey Jr. rejects offer, looking to get closer to home

Associated Press

SEATTLE-Ken Griffey Jr., wanting to play closer to his Florida home, has rejected the Seattle Mariners' eight-year contract offer and the team said yesterday it will try to trade the 10-time All-Star.

The Mariners presented Griffey a new contract proposal on July 17, a deal that would start next season. The contract was thought to be worth $135 million, which would have made Griffey the highest-paid player in baseball.

"This has been an extremely difficult decision for me," Griffey said in a joint statement he released with the team. "Mariners fans throughout the Pacific Northwest have been very loyal and devoted to me. I will truly miss them."

Griffey hit 48 homers this year after hitting 56 in consecutive seasons. The center fielder, who turns 30 later this month, has 398 career homers and is thought to have the best chance among current players of breaking Hank Aaron's record of 755.

"The Mariners agreed to Ken's request and will seek to trade him during the current off-season," the joint statement said.

Griffey, who has veto power over any deal because he is a 10-year veteran who has played five years with his current team, and his agent, Brian Goldberg, met Monday in Orlando, Fla., with Mariners chairman Howard Lincoln, president Chuck Armstrong and new general manager Pat Gillick.

Lincoln told a news conference that Griffey "has clearly been agonizing over this decision for some time," and that it was "a difficult loss" for the team.

He praised Griffey, however, for wanting to spend more time with his two young children.

"This is not a decision I can quarrel with or argue with, it's only a decision that I can respect," Lincoln said.

"It strictly has to do with family, time and geography," Goldberg said.

Goldberg did not say where Griffey prefers to play and did not completely rule out Griffey returning to play for Seattle, saying, "You never know."

"The Mariners have done everything humanly possible to keep Ken Griffey Jr. a Seattle Mariner," Lincoln said. "While we are disappointed, we deeply respect Ken's decision to put his family ahead of everything else."

Griffey and Seattle's other star, shortstop Alex Rodriguez, are eligible for free agency after next season.

"We are leaving it up to them to explore what they need to," Goldberg said from his Cincinnati office. "We're confident this is going to work out for everybody."

Goldberg said the Mariners "were very generous with their offer," but Griffey's desire to play closer to home took preference over money.

"Money was not an issue," he said, nor was the way the team is being managed or run.

The negotiations with Mariners ownership "was very, very friendly dealing. There was no ill will," Goldberg said.