TEMPE, Ariz. — Right-hander Jeff Weaver and the Los Angeles Angels agreed Wednesday to an $8.4 million, one-year contract.
Weaver can earn an additional $600,000 in performance bonuses.
He went 14-11 with three complete games, two shutouts and a 4.22 ERA in 34 starts last season with the Dodgers. He was eighth in the NL in starts and innings (224) and sixth in complete games. He also had 157 strikeouts and 43 walks, a ratio of 3.65 that was eighth in the league.
He set career highs in wins, strikeouts and fewest walks, and tied his mark for starts.
Weaver also had a career-best six straight victories from July 22-Aug. 28 and pitched into the seventh inning in 18 consecutive starts from May 24-Aug. 28, another career high.
His younger brother, Jered, a former pitching star for Long Beach State, is a prospect in the Angels' organization.
The Angels cut loose two of their starters from last year, left-hander Jarrod Washburn and right-hander Paul Byrd.
Weaver has a 78-87 career record, with 13 complete games, five shutouts, two saves and a 4.44 ERA in 226 major league games, including 209 starts.
He pitched for the Tigers from 1999-2002, the New York Yankees from 2002-03 and the Dodgers the past two seasons. He has appeared in the postseason twice, for the Yankees in 2002 and 2003, and the Dodgers in 2004.
SOSA TURNS DOWN NATIONALS: Sammy Sosa has turned down an offer to sign with the Washington Nationals.
The Nationals had offered Sosa a non-guaranteed contract that would have included performance bonus opportunities. Team spokesman John Dever said Wednesday that Sosa had rejected the deal.
Washington originally offered Sosa a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training, then proposed a major league deal.
Sosa ranks fifth on the career home run list with 588, but he batted only .221 with 14 homers and 45 RBIs last year in his only season with the Baltimore Orioles.
BREWERS, OHKA AGREE ON $4.53 MILLION DEAL: Pitcher Tomo Ohka agreed to a one-year, $4.53 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers, avoiding an arbitration hearing scheduled for Thursday.
By reaching an agreement Wednesday, the Brewers kept alive a three-year streak of avoiding arbitration with players. The team has not gone to arbitration with any player since general manager Doug Melvin assumed control of baseball operations at the end of the 2002 season.
Ohka asked for $5.2 million in arbitration, and the Brewers offered $4.25 million. The right-hander made $2.75 million last year when he went 7-6 with Milwaukee following a midseason trade with the Washington Nationals. He was 11-9 with a 4.04 ERA for the season.