Cards' gloves turn gold with four fielding awards

ST. LOUIS -- Greg Maddux won his 13th straight Gold Glove, and St. Louis Cardinals players won four of the nine National League awards Thursday.

Maddux, who extended his own NL record for pitchers, moved within three of the overall record, held by Jim Kaat. Maddux, who has won 10 of his Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves, became a free agent after the World Series.

Cardinals second baseman Fernando Vina, shortstop Edgar Renteria, third baseman Scott Rolen and outfielder Jim Edmonds all were winners.

Edmonds has won three straight NL Gold Gloves after winning three in the AL with Anaheim. Vina repeated at second base, and Rolen, acquired from Philadelphia during the season, won for the third straight year and fourth time overall. Renteria replaced Montreal's Orlando Cabrera at shortstop.

Houston's Brad Ausmus repeated at catcher, and Colorado's Todd Helton repeated at first base.

Edmonds was joined in the outfield by Colorado's Larry Walker, who won his seventh Gold Glove, and Atlanta's Andruw Jones, who won his fifth in a row.

Vina and Renteria get $100,000 bonuses, Edmonds and Walker get $50,000 each, and Ausmus and Helton receive $25,000.

Gold Gloves, presented since 1957 by St. Louis-based Rawlings, are voted on by managers and coaches before the end of the regular season. They may not select players on their own teams, and they vote only for players in their own league.

Greer's career in doubt

Texas Rangers outfielder Rusty Greer will undergo the first of at least four offseason operations next week that likely will force him to miss the 2003 season and could end his career.

Greer will have surgery on his rotator cuff Wednesday. He also faces surgery on his right knee, right hip and needs a ligament transplant in his left elbow that requires at least a year of recovery.

General manager John Hart has said that the Rangers weren't counting on Greer to be available next season, when he is scheduled to make $7 million.

The 33-year-old Greer, who is signed through the 2004 season, knows his career might be over.

Greer hit .296 with home run and 17 RBIs in 51 games last season. Slowed by injuries, he has played only 113 games in the last two years.

Greer, a career .305 hitter, drove in at least 100 runs and scored at least 100 in each of the Rangers' AL West championship seasons in 1996, '98 and '99.

White Sox re-sign Konerko

CHICAGO -- First baseman Paul Konerko, who had his first 100-RBI season and made the AL All-Star team for the first time, agreed Thursday to a $23 million, three-year contract with the Chicago White Sox.

Konerko, 26, batted a career-high .304 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs in 151 games last season. He finished second on the team in hits (173), doubles (30), slugging percentage (.498), total bases (284), average and RBIs, and was third in home runs and runs scored (81).

Konerko, who would have been eligible for free agency after the 2004 season, has been a .291 hitter with 104 home runs and 381 RBIs in 592 games with the White Sox after being acquired from Cincinnati for Mike Cameron in November 1998.

His career average is .287 with 111 home runs and 410 RBIs in 673 career games with the Dodgers (1997-98), Cincinnati (1998) and the White Sox (1999-2002).

Yanks opt to keep Pettitte

NEW YORK -- Pitcher Andy Pettitte's $11.5 million was exercised Thursday by the New York Yankees in the team's first big decision of the offseason.

New York, which says it intends to cut payroll, could have given a $2 million buyout to the 30-year-old left-hander, who had filed conditionally for free agency on Monday.

The Yankees, who had until Friday to make their decision, announced the move while general manager Brian Cashman was on a flight from Los Angeles to Japan -- where the team is expected to court free agent outfielder Hideki Matsui.

Pettitte was 13-5 with a 3.27 ERA last season but was limited to 22 starts because of elbow pain. He ended the season with nine wins in 11 starts.

-- From wire reports