updated 6:24 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2006

NEW YORK - Tom Glavine is staying with the New York Mets, agreeing Friday to a $10.5 million, one-year contract and opting against a possible return to the Atlanta Braves.

Glavine is 10 wins shy of 300 after going 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA this year. The two-time Cy Young Award winner also went 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA in three playoffs starts, helping the NL East champions reach Game 7 of the league championship series before New York lost to St. Louis.

“I wrestled with it,” Glavine said. “Everybody who knows me knows how important my family is.”

At the end of last season, Glavine said he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to return to the Braves, his team from 1987-2002, or stay with the Mets, who signed him before the 2003 season. He told the Mets he would make his decision before the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Florida.

“They gave me as much time as I needed,” Glavine said. “They never pressured me.”

Glavine’s family lives in the Atlanta area, but he was surprised by how much he wanted to stay in New York.

“After four years, it’s grown on me,” he said.

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His deal calls for a $7.5 million salary next year and contains a $9 million player option for 2008 that would become guaranteed if he pitches 160 innings next season, when he will be 41. The price of the option would increase by $1 million for each additional 10 innings up to a maximum price of $13 million. If the option isn’t exercised, he gets a $3 million buyout.

Glavine has the right to decline the option if it becomes guaranteed. He also gets a full no-trade clause.

“I feel very good about it,” Mets general manager Omar Minaya said.

Glavine said the Braves never made a proposal.

“I’m sure at some point in time they would have made me an offer,” he said. “What that offer would have been, who knows?”

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