There was a collective sigh of relief from the Minnesota Twins and their fan base as they signed MVP and All-Star catcher Joe Mauer to an 8 year $184 million dollar contract with a full no-trade clause. The deal covers the 2011-18 seasons and is the fourth largest — both in total value and average salary — in major league history. Mauer has won three AL batting titles, two Gold Gloves, and an MVP award. Mauer was going into the final year of his current contract. He will make $12.5 million this year in the final season of a $33 million, four-year deal and will earn $23 million in each of the following eight seasons under the extension. The only players to have a higher average salary than Mauer’s $23 million are Roger Clemens $28,000,022 prorated deal in 2007, and Alex Rodriguez at $27.5 million through 2017.
This contract is a no-brainer for the Minnesota Twins. Mauer is an amazing talent who plays at a specialty position. The only concern I would voice is Mauer’s injury history. He has had surgery on his knee back in 2004 and a back injury that kept him from playing the entire month of April last season. If the Twins manage Mauer and DH him to keep him healthy I see no reason why this won’t be a good deal for them. Assuming this does not hamper them from making other moves and retaining players in the future.
Victor Martinez must be licking his chops now as he will be looking for an extension from the Boston Red Sox soon. Mauer obviously has set the bar but Martinez knows his numbers are some what comparable. We shall see what the happens from here.
Hey Andrew,
I wanted to let you know that, FANTASYLAND, an original documentary film that follows one fantasy baseball enthusiast as he goes up against the best of the best made its world premiere (for free) on the online documentary film network SnagFilms.com.
Filmed during the 2008 baseball season, FANTASYLAND followed one man, Jed Latkin, a research analyst for ING and a fantasy enthusiast, who beat out several hundred people for a seat at the TOUT WARS table, to test his skills against the foremost experts in the industry.
FANTASYLAND appeals to millions of fantasy sports players, general sports enthusiasts and anyone else intrigued by the exciting, humorous, sometimes scary and surprising lengths to which otherwise normal people will go just to win a mere contest of pride.
Here is the link to the film if you are interested in checking it out:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/fantasyland
Embed Code:
Please feel free to watch/share this film and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
Best,
Liz
Joe is gettin paid! This guy is a great talent, zero holes in that swing. This is a good deal all around for everyone, especially Mauer.
They may not have to DH him if they can find a place for him in the outfield (assuming morneau will hold it down for the mean time at 1B). The important thing is that they have his bat in the line-up. There is no one else i would rather want at the plate than this guy.
What kind of contract do you think Victor Martinez is gonna be looking at and where do you think he will go? Can the Red Sox afford to pay him? or is he goin elsewhere?