The Oakland Athletics have agreed on a two-year, $8.1 million deal with reliever Grant Balfour, sources familiar with the negotiations told ESPN.com. The contract also includes a club option for 2013. Balfour, a 33-year-old right-hander, had a 2.28 ERA for Tampa Bay last season, but has had trouble finding the right fit this winter because he was a Type A free agent. Several interested teams backed off because signing him would have required them to give up their first-round draft pick this spring. The A's, however, are not one of those teams. Because they ranked in the bottom half of all teams based on their won-lost record last season, they will lose only a second-round pick. They also agreed not to offer arbitration to Balfour at the end of his contract, meaning a club signing Balfour would not have to surrender a compensation pick in his next deal. In the past three seasons, Balfour has struck out 207 hitters in 181 innings, the third-best strikeout rate (10.29 per nine innings) of any American League reliever. Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6022007
