Free agents turn down $13.3 million offers as general managers head home from meetings

Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - John Hamilton, B.J. Upton and Kyle Lohse were among nine free agents who turned down $13.3 million offers from their former clubs Friday as the annual general managers' ended and team officials headed home for what figures to be a busy month of negotiations.

Also rejecting the one-year guaranteed offers were the New York Yankees' trio of Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano and Hiroki Kuroda, along with David Ortiz, Michael Bourn and Adam LaRoche.

Under baseball's new labour contract, all the deadlines of the business season has been speeded up in an attempt to prompt quicker decisions before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.