Baseball-Major League Baseball roundup

Feb 1 (The Sports Xchange) - Washington Nationals right-hander Doug Fister avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to a one-year contract with the club on Saturday. Terms of the deal were not released. Fister, who was acquired from the Detroit Tigers in a December trade, was seeking $8.5 million and the Nationals countered with $5.5 million. Fister went 14-9 with a 3.67 ERA in 32 starts for Detroit last year. - - - The Los Angeles Dodgers avoided salary arbitration with catcher A.J. Ellis by agreeing to a one-year, $3.55 million contract, MLB.com reported Saturday. Ellis, 32, asked for $4.6 million and the Dodgers countered with $3 million when arbitration figures were exchanged in January. The deal also includes incentives based on games started and plate appearances, according to the New York Post. Ellis remains under team control through 2016. Ellis had a batting line of .255 combined in the past two seasons. Defensively, he has thrown out 37 percent of potential base stealers during that span. - - - The Kansas City Royals re-signed left-hander Bruce Chen and designated infielder Emilio Bonifacio for assignment on Saturday. Chen went 9-4 with a 3.27 ERA in 121 innings last year. He made 34 appearances, including 15 starts. Bonifacio was let go to make room for Chen on the 40-man roster. The Royals avoided salary arbitration with Bonifacio two weeks ago by agreeing to a one-year, $3.5 million deal. However, those deals are not fully guaranteed. The Royals could trade him or release him. (Editing by Gene Cherry)