The New York Yankees declined to offer outfielder Bobby Abreu arbitration.

The Yankees have declined to offer arbitration to Bobby Abreu, Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Sidney Ponson, Carl Pavano and Chad Moeller.

We imagine the Red Sox and Rays are plenty pleased to see that the Yankees won’t be getting any extra draft picks next year. Having Abreu back for about $16 million wouldn’t have been such a bad thing for the Yankees, and odds are that he would have left and brought back two picks. Now the Yankees are facing the possibility of not having their regular first-round pick or any supplemental first-round picks. They will have the 29th pick in the draft after not signing their first-round pick from 2008.

The Yankees could do way worse than Abreu for $16 million a year. Maybe the Cubs will take a look at him to protect Derrek Lee in the lineup.

The Chicago Cubs re-signed starter Ryan Dempster to a four-year, $52 million contract.

The 31-year-old right-hander was 17-6 with a 2.96 ERA for the Cubs this season.

“It was imperative that we kept him in house,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “No doubt in our minds that Ryan would have exceeded this deal on the streets in three or four weeks from now, the way the market is for starting pitching. Ryan was committed. From Day One he told us he wanted to stay. And it was a priority for us to try and get it done before we got too far down the road in the winter.”

As the Cubs’ closer from 2005-07, Dempster saved 87 games in 102 chances. After earning a spot in the rotation during spring training following rigorous workouts last offseason, he returned to the starter’s role he held with the Marlins and Reds from 1998-2003.

Dempster went 14-3 at Wrigley Field during the regular season.

Not bad money for a guy that could only win at Wrigley Field last year. It’ll be interesting to see if the Cubs can now pull off a deal for Jake Peavy.