CHICAGO (AP) -- Aaron Rowand and the Chicago White Sox agreed Friday to a contract that guarantees the outfielder $8.5 million over the next three seasons.

Rowand, 27, set career highs last season by hitting .310 with 38 doubles, 24 homers and 69 RBIs.

"It's nice to they made a commitment to me. I'm just excited, really speechless to tell you the truth," Rowand said. "I never thought this would happen to me. It's nice to know the mornings of waking up at 5:30 in the offseason and going out and laying it all on the table every day did not go unnoticed."

Eligible for salary arbitration for the first time after making $340,000 last year, he gets $2 million in 2005 and $3.25 million in 2006. Rowand holds a player option for 2007 at $3.25 million. If he declines it, Chicago can decide whether to exercise a $5 million club option.

"Aaron is a player that our organization and White Sox fans have come to embrace because of his all-out style of play," Chicago general manager Ken Williams said. "We believe he epitomizes the type of team we are building on the South Side, and it is particularly satisfying to be able to reward a player that we drafted and developed and whose best years we feel are still ahead of him."

Manager Ozzie Guillen said no decision has been made on whether Rowand will be the center fielder or whether that job will got to newly acquired Scott Podsednik. Guillen said he would discuss it with his coaching staff, but that Rowand deserved a shot in center because of the way he played the position last season. Whoever doesn't play center will start in left.

"Tell you the truth, it doesn't really matter as long as I'm in there," Rowand said, echoing a similar comment from Podsednik.

Right-hander Luis Vizcaino is the only Chicago player who remains eligible for arbitration.

Also Friday, catcher Jamie Burke was sent outright to Triple-A Charlotte, five days after he was designated for assignment. Burke, 33, hit .333 (40-for-120) with no homers and 15 RBIs with the White Sox last season.