Hot- Stove

Six-time All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed Monday to an $18.5 million, two-year contract. The 33-year-old Garciaparra, the NL comeback player of the year, will get a $2.5 million signing bonus, a salary of $7.5 million next season and $8.5 million in 2008. His deal also contains performance bonuses and a no-trade provision.

A two-time AL batting champion, Garciaparra shifted to first base with the Dodgers last season, his first with the team. He hit .303 with 93 RBIs and 20 home runs.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday night that the team will offer the free agent a multiyear contract with a higher base salary than the incentive-laden deal Garciaparra played with last season.

Free-agent infielder Nomar Garciaparra has agreed to a one-year contract with the Dodgers. The question now is how the Dodgers will resolve their infield logjam once shortstop Cesar Izturis returns from elbow-ligament transplant surgery, probably at mid-season.

Garciaparra, 32, chose the Dodgers over the Yankees, Indians and Astros. A former All-Star shortstop with the Red Sox, he is expected to play a new position, first base. But second baseman Jeff Kent had been expected to move to first after Izturis returned, with Izturis replacing Kent at second.

The biggest question with Garciaparra is his health; in the past two seasons, he has appeared in only 143 games. He missed more than three months with a groin injury last season, but he hit well for the Cubs after returning in early August, batting .318 with 11 doubles and nine homers in 179 at-bats.