Beltran, Mets agree to try to work out $119 million contract

NEW YORK -- Carlos Beltran and the New York Mets agreed Sunday to try to structure a $119 million, seven-year contract, a lawyer involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press.\nThe sides agreed that the deal will include an $11 million signing bonus, the source said on condition of anonymity.\nNew York and Beltran's agent, Scott Boras, still had to work out how to structure his salaries for each season and any deferred payments, the source and another person involved in the talks said, also on condition of anonymity.\nMets officials and Boras planned to work throughout Sunday in an attempt to reach a preliminary agreement on the specifics of the contract. After the sides sign off on that, Beltran must pass a physical for the deal to be finalized.\nBeltran, who helped Houston come within a victory of its first World Series last year, will became the 10th player in baseball history to agree to a deal worth $100 million or more -- and the first since Jason Giambi got a $120 million, seven-year contract from the New York Yankees in December 2001.\nThe Mets, who haven't made the playoffs since 2000, were on the verge of pulling off their second coup of the offseason. They lured three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez from the Boston Red Sox last month with a $53 million, four-year deal.\nHouston offered Beltran a $100 million, seven-year contract, but he turned it down before Saturday night's deadline for him to re-sign with the Astros. Because he became a free agent and rejected salary arbitration, under baseball's rules Houston had to re-sign Beltran by midnight Saturday or lose rights until May 1.\n"The serious parts of this only happened in the last six hours," Astros general manager Tim Purpura said. "Really, I think we ran out of time. Mostly, it's time and distance. Certainly I regret the fact that we didn't deal with some of these things earlier -- but we didn't control the pace of the negotiations"