Kansas City, Mo ? The Kansas City Royals made no deals before Wednesday’s Major League Baseball trading deadline as they held onto 14-game winner Paul Byrd, who several contending teams wanted.

“We defined three and half weeks ago,” general manager Allard Baird said on what it would take to acquire Byrd in a deal. “We know how valuable Paul Byrd is.”

No club met the Royals’ demands for Byrd, who is among the American League leaders with 14 victories, five complete-games, 1521â3 innings pitched and 1.5 walks per nine innings.

Byrd has a base salary of $850,000 this season, but it could reach $2.2 million with incentives. Byrd can file for free agency after this season and his salary might escalate to $6 million per season or more for a multi-year contract on the open market. That would make Byrd too expensive for the budget-conscious Royals to keep.

Baird said the Royals would attempt to re-sign Byrd during the off-season.

“We have interest in keeping Paul Byrd,” Baird said. “Paul Byrd has an interest in staying with the Royals. In any negotiations if you have a common thread, positive things happen out of that. That doesn’t guarantee success (in re-signing Byrd).

“We don’t know what the market is going to be. We don’t know what the new collective bargaining agreement is going to be. Both of those are going to be a factor. I guess there is a gamble on whether we can be able to afford him or not.”

Byrd was pleased he was not traded.

“I’m excited I got to stay here,” Byrd said. “I was a little confused when they didn’t want to re-sign me to a deal (during the season). I thought then I’d be traded. I didn’t think they’d just let me walk away from this year.

“I like it here. I’m glad I can stay. I always said I wanted to play here and I do.”

Byrd said the trade stories did not affect him when he pitched.

“The last hour (before the deadline) was really tough,” Byrd said. “It was like waiting to be executed, like sitting on death row.”

Byrd has said he would take less to sign back with Kansas City.

“I feel I’m in a win-win situation,” Byrd said of being a free agent.