ATLANTA — The Braves made an offer to Tom Glavine on Friday, moving quickly to lock up a deal that will allow the left-hander to finish his career in Atlanta.

Just two days after meeting with Glavine’s agent in Phoenix, Braves general manager Frank Wren proposed a contract to the 41-year-old pitcher, who likely will command somewhere between $8 million and $10 million for the 2008 season.

The two sides seem to be moving smoothly toward a deal that would allow Glavine to return to the Braves.

"We’ve made it clear that we want Tom back," said Wren, reached on his cell phone while attending a high school football game. "We made an offer, and they’re in the contemplative stage. We’re waiting for their response. They wanted to discuss it over the weekend and get back to us."

Glavine’s agent, Gregg Clifton, sounded as though he didn’t want to wait that long.

"We got an offer from them and we’re going to be forwarding a counterproposal back to them within the next couple hours," he said Friday evening.

Clifton was pleased with the first offer from the Braves.

"The proposal was certainly a good starting point, and now we’ll be countering back, and we’re anxious to see what their response to our proposal is," the agent said.

Glavine, a 300-game winner, turned down a $13 million option to return to the New York Mets for a sixth year. He clearly wants to finish his career in Atlanta, where he pitched from 1987-2002 and kept his home even after signing with the Mets.

During his Atlanta career, Glavine won two NL Cy Young Awards and put up five 20-win seasons. He went 13-8 with a 4.45 ERA in 200 1-3 innings for the Mets this year.

The Braves are eager to add depth to a rotation that relied heavily on John Smoltz and Tim Hudson this past season, and they cleared room in the payroll by trading shortstop Edgar Renteria to Detroit for a pair of prospects.