ATLANTA -- The Braves picked up the contract option on right-hander John Smoltz, giving the former Cy Young Award winner a chance to rejoin the club's rotation next season.

The team also said it wouldn't pick up the contract option on veteran first baseman Wally Joyner.

Smoltz, 33, missed the 2000 season after surgery to repair a torn ligament in his pitching elbow during spring training. He made $8.5-million last season. The option for 2000 is worth $8-million, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Smoltz was 11-8 with a 3.19 earned-run average in 1999, although he was on the disabled list twice with elbow problems. He missed the start of the 1998 season after off-season elbow surgery.

He has a 157-113 record (12-4 in post-season) with a 3.35 ERA.

Joyner, 38, hit .281 with five home runs and 32 runs batted in for the Braves last season. He was acquired before the season in a trade that sent first baseman Ryan Klesko and second baseman Bret Boone to the San Diego Padres.

The Braves wanted Joyner as insurance in case first baseman Andres Galarraga wasn't able to return after being treated for cancer. Galarraga, 39, came back with a .302 average with 28 home runs and 100 RBI, starting 122 games.

Joyner started 39 games and had just 224 at-bats, both career lows. He made $3.4-million.

DODGERS: Los Angeles has interviewed 10 candidates for its vacant managerial job, and will trim the list for a second round of interviews next week. Two who will be interviewed again are Dodgers coaches Rick Down and Jim Tracy.

ORIOLES: Staff ace Mike Mussina formally filed for free agency, enhancing the possibility his days with the Orioles are over. Mussina, 31, is 147-81 in a career spent entirely in Baltimore.

MATHEWS OUT OF ICU: Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews, hospitalized near San Diego for nearly eight weeks, remains on a ventilator but has been moved out of intensive care again. Mathews, a 69-year-old known mostly as a Brave, has "severe lung damage," according to his wife, Judy.

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