The New York Yankees' desire to return Roger Clemens to their rotation apparently goes beyond just this coming week.

	Roger Clemens Starting Pitcher New York Yankees Profile
	2002 SEASON STATISTICS GM W L Sv K ERA 19 8 3 0 126 4.02

Clemens' agents have been talking with the team about extending Clemens' contract beyond this season, the Newark Star-Ledger reported Sunday, citing a person familiar with the negotiations.

Clemens is in the second year of a unique contract that paid him $10.3 million each of the past two seasons and guarantees him $10.3 million next season.

The catch? Clemens receives that $10.3 million even if he doesn't pitch for New York next season. The Yankees only rigged the contract that way to keep their 2001 and '02 payrolls at their desired levels.

So Clemens, effectively, is a free agent, and he wants a contract for next year in addition to the $10.3 million payment the Yankees will make, according to the Star-Ledger. The problem is the way the two sides view the situation.

Clemens' agents, the Houston-based Hendricks brothers, are looking for a one-year deal worth about $12 million or $13 million, the newspaper reports. The Yankees wouldn't mind that if that's all they had to pay Clemens for next season, but they don't want to end up paying him a total of $22.3 or $23.3 million, which is what it would come out to.

That's why some members of the Yankees organization already are talking about the possibility that Clemens will leave at the end of this season and pursue his 300th career victory in the uniform of the Texas Rangers or the Houston Astros. And that's why the Yankees already have had internal discussions about what it would take to sign one of the Atlanta Braves' two impending free agents, Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux, the Star-Ledger reports.

Clemens turned 40 years old on Sunday.