The Cubs did their best imitation of the New York Yankees on Sunday, making free-agent outfielder Alfonso Soriano an offer he couldn't refuse.

Soriano, the biggest name on the market, quickly agreed to an eight-year, $136 million deal to start the free-agent season with a bang.

General manager Jim Hendry was unavailable for comment, but sources confirmed the Cubs had reached agreement with Soriano and planned to announce a deal Monday once he passes a physical.

The deal caps a frenzied week in which Hendry shelled out nearly $229 million to Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, Mark DeRosa, Henry Blanco and Kerry Wood, trying to change the perception of the organization before the first snowfall.

The Cubs have never been a free-spending team like the Yankees or Boston, preferring to reward their own players rather than engage in bidding wars for free agents.

But that philosophy appears to have been scuttled after a 66-win season that led many die-hards to eat their tickets in September rather than stomach another Cubs loss.

While the Cubs were one of several teams pursuing Soriano, they got their man before Philadelphia, Houston or the Los Angeles Angels had a chance. The $17 million annual average makes Soriano the highest-paid Cub, surpassing the $73 million over five years that Ramirez received.

It's also the second-highest annual salary in Cubs history, after Sammy Sosa's four-year, $72 million deal in 2001.

Soriano, who turns 31 in January, is expected to lead off and play center field. He was considered one of the few instant-impact players on the market after finishing among the league leaders in several categories with Washington last summer.

He was third in the NL with 46 home runs, tied for sixth with 41 stolen bases, first with 89 extra-base hits, second with 363 total bases, third with a .368 leadoff on-base percentage, first with 22 outfield assists and ninth with a .560 slugging percentage.

Soriano also became the first player in history with 40 home runs, 40 stolen bases and 20 outfield assists in a season, and he was the first with 40 homers, steals and doubles in a season.

With Soriano, Ramirez and Derrek Lee, the Cubs' everyday lineup will have three players who have hit 35 or more home runs in a season.

A five-time All-Star with a .280 lifetime average, 208 homers and 560 RBIs in eight seasons, Soriano reluctantly moved from second base to left field last spring after he was traded from Texas to Washington.

But he gradually learned to accept the move. His 22 outfield assists was nine more than the total from Cubs outfielders Jacques Jones, Juan Pierre and Matt Murton.

Soriano began his rise to stardom as the leadoff man for the Yankees but fell out of favor in New York because of his shaky fielding at second. Manager Joe Torre dropped him to the No. 9 slot in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series, and Soriano hit .225 in 17 postseason games that year. On Feb. 15, 2004, the Yankees shipped him to Texas for Alex Rodriguez and $67 million.

Soriano had two solid offensive years in Texas before being sent to Washington last winter. The Nationals spurned trade offers for Soriano in July, though the Angels, Detroit and Houston were among the teams trying to acquire him for the stretch run. General manager Jim Bowden didn't believe teams were offering enough for Soriano, so he let him play out the season with a last-place club.

The Nationals reportedly came up with a relatively paltry five-year, $70 million offer after the season and were immediately shot down. Soriano told them he wanted a deal close to the seven-year, $119 million contract Carlos Beltran received from the Mets two winters ago.

"We weren't going to spend the kind of money he ended up getting," Bowden told the Washington Post late Sunday night.

One source told the Post that the Cubs had granted Soriano one of his most significant wishes—a no-trade clause.

So the Nationals are left with nothing. Though the Cubs have the No. 3 pick in the 2007 draft, the Nationals won't get it. Teams that finish in the bottom half of the standings have to surrender only a second-round pick and a sandwich pick if they sign a Type A free agent, as Soriano is.

The Cubs were among the teams left in the dust by the Beltran deal, and they finished as a runner-up in the Rafael Furcal bidding last year. Hendry called the Dodgers' three-year, $39 million deal "absurd," and now he'll probably be on the receiving end of some grumbling from his peers, who will likely note that Soriano will turn 38 in the final year of his contract.

But with two years left on his own contract, Hendry will gladly take the heat. After the Cubs acquired Neal Cotts from the White Sox, signed DeRosa and re-signed Ramirez and Wood, Hendry hinted everything seemed to be going as planned.

"You just can't count on things happening as well as they have here in the last couple of weeks," Hendry said. "But we hope to keep it up."

The Cubs kept it up Sunday.