Toronto Blue Jays sign Batista

TORONTO, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The Toronto Blue Jays signing righthander Miguel Batista to a three-year contract worth $13.1 million.

Batista will earn $3.6 million in 2004, $4.75 million in 2005 and $4.75 million in 2006.

Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi negotiated with Batista's agent Martin Arburua on Thursday and reached an agreement before leaving for the winter meetings in New Orleans.

"We didn't want to have to come down here and have this keep lingering and lingering and have other teams get more involved," Ricciardi said. "He competes, number one, he takes the ball, he's going to give you 180-200 innings ... We got a good player, we got him at a good price and I think everybody's happy."

Batista, 32, spent the last three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and is best known for pitching 7 2/3 scoreless innings in Game Five of the 2001 World Series against the New York Yankees. He pitched a career-high 193 1/3 innings last season and went 10-9 with a 3.54 ERA in 36 games, including 29 starts.