Broxton, Cardinals Agree To Two-Year Baseball Deal

Reliever Jonathan Broxton is staying with the Cardinals, agreeing to a two-year, $7.5 million contract.

The 31-year-old right-hander gets $3.75 million in both of the next two seasons under the agreement announced Thursday, which includes a full no-trade provision.

A two-time All-Star, Broxton was acquired from Milwaukee in August for minor league outfielder Malik Collymore and went 3-3 with a 2.66 ERA in 26 games with the Cardinals with 26 strikeouts in 23⅔ innings. St. Louis declined a $9 million option in favor of a $1 million buyout, allowing him to become a free agent.

Broxton is 39-35 with a 3.23 ERA and 118 saves in his career. He was a closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals from 2008 to 2012 and also has played for Cincinnati.

Orioles Take Davis Offer Off Table

The Baltimore Orioles have taken their seven-year offer to slugger Chris Davis for approximately $150 million off the table, a source told ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney on Thursday.

According to a source, the Orioles didn't raise the offer -- "not a nickel" -- since Wednesday, before deciding to pull it back.

It's possible the talks will resume where they last left off -- the two sides spoke as recently as Wednesday -- but one source said the Orioles are going about the business of remaking the team for 2016, whether it includes Davis or not, and pursuing other players.

"There's a lot of rumors out there, lot of interest," Orioles general manager Dan Duquette said Thursday. "But now's the time of the year to buckle down and for people to make choices, what they're going to do with their teams and for players to choose what teams they're going to play for.

"I believe we're making a little progress on figuring out how we're going to put our team together this year. I always like to try to get the core of the team before Christmas, but it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes you need patience, and sometimes you've got to move. We're moving on the things we can move on, and I can see our team being pretty good next year."

Davis led the majors with 47 home runs in 2015, and he's hit 159 homers over the past four seasons -- more than any player on the free-agent market.

Mickey Mantle Rookie Card Sells For More Than $500,000

A rare Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card has sold at auction for more than $500,000.

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said the pristine card sold for $525,800 Thursday night to a collector who wanted to remain anonymous.

A Heritage statement said the price set a record for a Mantle rookie card. A near-mint card sold for $486,100 in early November, setting the record at the time for price paid at auction for a card of Mantle, the Hall of Fame slugger who played 18 seasons for the New York Yankees, and the most paid for a card sold on eBay.

The '52 Mantle rookie card has long been the most valuable postwar baseball card, with comparable examples selling for $386,000 to $486,000 over the past 12 months.

The Mantle card was part of a 407-card set Topps distributed in 1952. However, as a rookie card, it was a "high number" card that didn't reach the Topps distribution chain before the end of the 1952 season. As a result, only a relative few of the cards were distributed to stores in the northeastern United States and Canada, with the rest dumped at sea.