Source: Prince Fielder Close to Signing New Contract With Brewers

For a while it seemed that the Brewers and Prince Fielder were going to be heading to arbitration to hammer out a deal for Fielder in 2009. Fielder wanted $8 million, the Brewers were willing to go to $6 million, and in between the two Scott Boras sat like Mr. Burns tapping his fingers together while plotting evil schemes to block out the sun in Milwaukee until Prince got his money.

While there was also some talk that the Brewers may trade Fielder -- he could help fill some other needs the team has -- general manager Doug Melvin denied any chance of that happening, and now the chances of a trade seem even more remote. That's because according to Jon Heyman at SI.com, the two sides are on the verge of agreeing to a two-year deal.

Star first baseman Prince Fielder and the Brewers are closing in on a two-year contract believed to be worth at least $18 million, SI.com has learned. An announcement could come as early as today.

Fielder submitted an arbitration figure of $8 million while the team submitted $6 million, but the two sides have been working toward the multi-year agreement since. SI's Tom Verducci first learned that the sides were in talks for a two-year deal.

Now without knowing all the parameters of the deal, I think it's safe to say that at the moment, Prince wins. I mean, he wanted $8 million to play this season and now it looks like he's going to get an average of $9 million per season and he'll be a free agent at the age of 27. We'll have more on this as it develops.