MLB

Yankees sign Soriano to be setup man

The best bullpen in baseball now calls The Bronx home.

The Yankees agreed in principle to a deal with lights-out reliever Rafael Soriano, pairing him with Mariano Rivera to give the Yankees a shutdown end-of-game tandem.

The bridge to Rivera every night will be sturdier than the GW.

The 31-year-old Soriano agreed to a creative deal that can be worth as much as $35 million over three years, pending a physical, according to two sources familiar with the deal.

The contract calls for Soriano to make $10 million this season, $11 million in 2012 and $14 million in 2013. But the final two years are player options, allowing Soriano to leave the Yankees after the first or second seasons if he chooses. The Yankees would buy him out for $1.5 million in such an instance.

The Yankees got imaginative with the contract to lure Soriano to New York. After posting an AL-best 45 saves for the Rays this year, Soriano was considered the best closer on the free-agent market not named Rivera.

Soriano would have closed anywhere else, but was willing to serve as Rivera’s setup man. The Yankees now hope he’ll serve in that capacity for two years before becoming Rivera’s successor when the legendary closer is expected to retire.

The deal comes a week after general manager Brian Cashman seemed to say the Yankees were out of the running for Soriano when he said the team would not surrender its first-round draft pick for any of the remaining Type-A free agents. That was clearly a negotiating ploy by Cashman.

After missing out on top target Cliff Lee, Cashman had to do something to keep up with the Red Sox, who have had a monster winter.

Soriano joins a bullpen that not only has Rivera but also Pedro Feliciano, Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson. That quintet will give manager Joe Girardi plenty of late-game options when he cracks his binder open.

This brings to an end any speculation that Chamberlain would regain his hold as the eighth-inning set-up man. The former phenom will now be reduced to a middle-inning righty, and this certainly will raise calls for the Yankees to move him back to the starting rotation, something Cashman has said repeatedly will not happen.

With the bullpen solidified, the Yankees still need starting pitching and a fourth outfielder. Andy Pettitte still has not made up his mind, and the Yankees are proceeding as if he has retired.

The starting rotation may not have to pitch past the sixth inning with this bullpen, though.

Soriano spent one season in Tampa and put up huge numbers for the Rays in an All-Star season. Besides the 45 saves, he had an ERA of 1.73 and appeared in 64 games.

The Rays lost three high-profile free agents this winter, and Soriano is the second to join an AL East rival. Carl Crawford signed with the Red Sox in December, and Carlos Pena left the division to sign with the Cubs.

Before getting traded to Tampa, the right-hander spent three seasons in the Braves’ bullpen, posting 27 saves in 2009 for Atlanta. He spent the first five years of his career as a Mariner.

Scott Boras represents Soriano. He and Cashman worked out the contract as a way to give Soriano flexibility if he decides he’d rather be a closer somewhere else.

Soriano’s pitching repertoire consists mainly of a moving fastball that hovers in the mid-90s and a slider.

Now, he’s the opening act for “Enter Sandman,” a thought sure to send shivers down the spines of the rest of the American League.

brian.costello@nypost.com