Baseball notebook: Record deal for A-Rod

Alex Rodriguez couldn’t believe what was happening. He thought the New York Yankees didn’t want him.

In revealing details of what led to him opting out of his contract with the Yankees, and of his subsequent phone call to Hank and Hal Steinbrenner to revive his career in pinstripes, Rodriguez criticized agent Scott Boras for misleading him.

“The whole thing was a mistake. It was a huge debacle,” Rodriguez said Thursday after finalizing his $275 million, 10-year contract. “For me it was very stressful. It was a very humbling experience. I knew what I wanted from Day 1. The mistake I made is that I should have called Hank and Hal from the get-go and I didn’t do that. And I blame me.”

Rodriguez’s deal, which allows him to earn as much as $305 million, broke the previous baseball record – set by his $252 million, 10-year contract with Texas in December 2000. Traded to the Yankees in 2004, he opted out of that deal Oct. 28, during the final game of the World Series.

“I was 100 percent sure, pretty much, from the information I was getting that the Yankees didn’t have any interest in my services,” he said. “The whole thing didn’t feel right. … I always thought that the negotiation would be simple and it wasn’t going to take a lot of time. So when I was getting that information, to me, yeah, that was very surprising and upsetting. And it was actually hurtful.”

After the opt out was announced, Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said New York would not negotiate further with Rodriguez because his decision eliminated the $21.3 million subsidy the Yankees were to receive from Texas from 2008-10, a figure negotiated at the time of his trade.

But Rodriguez then approached the Yankees through a managing director at Goldman Sachs and negotiated his new deal in early November without Boras.

Eckstein joins Jays

Shortstop David Eckstein agreed to terms with the Toronto Blue Jays on a one-year, $4.5 million contract.

Eckstein had a career-high .309 batting average for the St. Louis Cardinals last season with three homers, 31 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.

Twins, Everett agree

Adam Everett was a free agent for, oh, a few hours.

Cast aside the day before when Houston acquired All-Star Miguel Tejada, Everett agreed to a $2.8 million, one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins to be their regular shortstop.

Everett was limited to 66 games last season after a mid-June collision with left fielder Carlos Lee, who slid and crashed into Everett’s right fibula while the shortstop was backpedaling to chase a fly ball. Everett was out until the final week of the year and finished with a .232 average in 220 at-bats.