Hello all. Something that I’m sure many of you are following is Joe Mauer's contract situation. I’ve lived in Minnesota my entire life and have loved the way that the Twins play baseball since I can remember. Four players have always stood out as being my favorites: Kirby Puckett, Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, and Joe Mauer. Only one of them remains with the Twins organization and hopefully he will be sticking around for a long time. Recently, talks have been heating up with rumored deals and both sides are saying that it is just a matter of time.
As much as I love the rest of the Twins players and the entire organization, Santana and Hunter are still greatly missed. Hunter's magnificent catches were usually a highlight of my day and it always felt special to have seen the catch live before it would inevitably appear on the Sportscenter Top Plays. The passion and the way that he played the game was always a fun thing to watch, and because of him, my favorite part of baseball is still watching an outfielder snag a home run away from the batter. Eventually, Hunter became yet another All-Star that was too big to fit within the Twins payroll so he left for the big bucks in Los Angeles. He rejected the 3 year $45 million contract to take a 5 year $90 million one. I always thought that Hunter would forever protect Minnesota pitchers in the Metrodome but I guess some things just don’t last forever. He is still one of my favorite players but it is hard to watch him in an Angel’s uniform.
It was a little easier seeing Johan Santana leave but only because the initial punch to the gut from Hunter leaving softened the blow from Santana getting traded to the Mets. He was the first pitcher that I remember marking down on the calendar the games that he would be pitching. I still remember his 17 strikeout game, wishing I would have been there because one of my good friends got to go. But at the end of the season, as it is customary for all small market baseball fans, you could just feel that he was soon on his way out. He rejected a 5 year $100 million offer from the Twins and was soon sent packing to the Mets. It was always easy to blame the Twins management for not dishing out the cash for these big players, but looking back I don’t think it would have been good to pay a pitcher 25% of your payroll. It would be hard for any team to justify that.
This winter, it seems as though everything has changed for the Twins. A new ballpark, a trade for a proven player in Hardy, two big name signings, and the possibility of signing one of the top 5 players in baseball to a long term contract. They also recently inked this old time Twin to a minor league deal. Joe Mauer is the face of the Minnesota Twins right now and if they let him walk, I’m not sure if the team would ever recover. With the new ballpark ready for action, the chances that Mauer is not going to get lock down seem to be slim to none. The hometown kid doesn’t seem like the player to take a simple pay cut to stay with his cities team, but he strikes me as the kind of player to take a massive one. Now this isn’t to say that the Twins should just low ball him, but his agent has been in negotiations with some big time ball players who have stuck around with one team, such as Cal Ripken, Jr. and Kirby Puckett. If the Twins can finally make the right move and keep their franchise players around (already have Morneau, Cuddyer, and Kubel under multi-year deals and hopefully soon to be Span) the prospects of a World Series title coming back to Minnesota are certainly looking up.
Derek
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