NEW YORK – Jason Giambi doesn’t want to fight Bud Selig over a possible suspension, and the Major League Baseball Players Association won’t force him to, baseball sources said Monday.

The union has said Selig has no right to force Giambi to speak to the Mitchell investigation on doping in baseball, and no right to punish him. But sources familiar with talks between MLB, the union and Giambi say the player wants to “put the whole thing behind him” and will agree to talk to Mitchell’s investigators.

Sources said on Monday that Giambi is close to a deal with Major League Baseball that would limit Mitchell’s questions to Giambi’s personal use and his grand jury testimony in the BALCO case from 2003, heading off a potential labor battle.

Selig wants Giambi’s answer by Thursday, but Giambi’s agent, Arn Tellem, has been seeking assurances from MLB that Giambi won’t have to name names, as the New York Daily News reported last week.

Giambi reportedly admitted to the grand jury that he had used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, and vaguely apologized in 2005 without specifying what he was apologizing for. In an interview with USA Today last month, however, he offered a more explicit mea culpa that MLB took as an admission.

Selig issued a statement June 6 saying that he would punish Giambi, but the severity of that punishment would depend on whether he cooperated with Mitchell’s investigation. The union responded by saying that Giambi had done nothing punishable. Sources on both sides said if Giambi refused to talk and Selig suspended him, the union would file a grievance and almost certainly win.

But there are larger issues at play.

Giambi finds himself in the middle of a battle over the commissioner’s powers, and, if the Yankees try to void his contract, over the inviolability of guaranteed contracts. Selig’s course of action also may set the stage for how he deals with Barry Bonds.

If a grand jury investigating Bonds for perjury indicts him before its term expires next month, Selig may suspend him, forcing the union to file a grievance and defend an unpopular player. If the grand jury is dismissed and Bonds is not indicted, Selig may order him to speak with Mitchell with the threat of suspension otherwise.

But, as one source said, Giambi doesn’t want to be anyone’s “poster boy for steroids,” so he is willing to cooperate as long as he doesn’t have to name names.

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AP-NY-06-19-07 0024EDT