NASHVILLE—Don’t expect Carlos Pena to sign a long-term deal with the Rays this winter. His agent certainly doesn’t sound like he expects that to happen.

Scott Boras predicted tonight that Pena and the Rays will settle on a one-year contract for 2008, whether it comes through the arbitration process or is agreed to ahead of time.

“He’s got two years to go before he’s a free agent, and normally those types of situations are one where they end up doing a one-year deal,” Boras said in the lobby at the Opryland Resort.

Boras is known for taking his clients to the open market at the first possible opportunity, avoiding deals that will buy out the first couple of years of free agency for a chance to play teams off against one another in a bidding process. Though he said he would be “all ears” to anything the Rays might throw his way, he indicated he didn’t expect the Rays to come up with a longer-term offer that would adequately compensate Pena for his “phenomenal” 2007 season and his potential production in coming years.

“Getting a long-term deal for those types of seasons are difficult,” said Boras, “because you have a scaling that the club argues it happens only once and our opinion is it’ll probably repeat itself.”

Pena, who made $1.2 million last season with incentives, said last week that he is staying out of the negotiating process and that suits him just fine.

“To be honest with you, I just trust,” he said. “I’m an optimistic person and I’m particularly optimistic about this situation. I think both Scott and Andrew [Friedman] know how much I appreciate this town and being part of the Rays. Having said that, they also know what the market’s all about. I know that they are the architects of all this, so I just leave it in their hands. Whichever way it comes out, I know it’s going to be a positive thing.”

* One other late-night note: Baseball America reports the Rays are planning to sell the first pick in tomorrow’s (well, today’s) Rule 5 draft to the Padres. Friedman said late this afternoon the Rays were considering that possibility; they got $100,000 from Oakland for the first pick last year.