Dodgers Re-Sign Brian Wilson For 1-Year, $10M
(AP) -- Brian Wilson will be wearing Dodger Blue for at least another season.
The free-agent reliever agreed to terms on a $10 million, one-year contract to stay with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Thursday.
The deal is pending a physical, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had not made an announcement regarding the quirky, bearded three-time All-Star. Wilson's new contract includes an $8.5 million player option for the 2015 season.
Wilson, a right-hander and the 2010 majors saves leader while with San Francisco, joined the NL West champion Dodgers last season after a second Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery. He missed almost the entire 2012 season when the Giants won their second World Series in three years.
Wilson immediately fit in well with his former team's archrival.
Getting a fresh start, he went 2-1 with a 0.66 ERA in 18 outings over 13 2-3 innings this year for Los Angeles. He became a reliable option out of the bullpen for manager Don Mattingly once the right-hander returned from the lengthy elbow rehab.
Wilson chose to join the Dodgers when the Giants declined to bring him back in December 2012.
Now, he is set to pitch his first full season since 2011.
Wilson signed with Los Angeles last July 31 after working out for several clubs at the University of San Francisco - and that included the Giants, who monitored his recovery each step of the way. He then made four scoreless appearances during a minor league rehab assignment before the Dodgers activated him Aug. 19.
The Giants declined to tender a one-year contract to the closer last December, making him a free agent.
Wilson was the 2010 major league saves leader with 48, but made only two appearances for the club in 2011 after experiencing elbow trouble in April. He underwent reconstructive Tommy John surgery on April 19 that year, his second such procedure on his pitching elbow after also having it done while in college at LSU in 2003. Dr. James Andrews performed both operations. Wilson missed the team's run to its second championship in three years.
That move with Wilson, who earned $8.5 million during his injury-shortened 2012 season, was hardly unexpected given the uncertainty surrounding when the right-hander might be healthy again and ready to pitch.
Wilson has spent his first seven major league seasons with San Francisco after the Giants selected him in the 24th round of the 2003 draft. He got the final out in Game 5 of the 2010 World Series at Texas to clinch the franchise's first championship since moving West in 1958.
Wilson finished 6-4 with a 3.11 ERA and 36 saves in 57 appearances in 2011, but was held out down the stretch as a precaution.
Then he complained of discomfort in the elbow on April 13, 2012, and was sent for an MRI exam. Wilson had thrown 32 pitches at Colorado a day earlier while working on back-to-back days, and had to be checked on once.
