- Thread starter
- #1
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2008
- Messages
- 67,842
- Reaction score
- 2,208
I think I posted one a while ago saying he signed a 10 year deal, guess it was just speculation.
The Minnesota Twins and Joe Mauer have agreed on the richest contract ever for a catcher, an eight-year, $184 million deal that will keep their MVP in the Twin Cities well into what may be a Hall of Fame career.
Mauer, who turns 27 next month, becomes the second-highest paid player ever after leading the AL in batting average, on-base and slugging percentage last season. The deal includes a full no-trade clause and begins in 2011, meaning he could be a Twin through the 2018 season.
The agreement comes on a day the Twins could use some good news. Their All-Star closer, Joe Nathan, will miss all of 2010 because of elbow surgery. If the Mauer extension talks dragged into the regular season, it might have cast a pall over the opening of Target Field, the Twins' much-anticipated open-air stadium.
Instead, there will be much to celebrate, as the Twins clearly are intent on using enhanced revenues from their new stadium to retain their new core of superstars, after a decade in which they developed Torii Hunter and Johan Santana into All-Stars, only to see them become too expensive to retain.
That won't be happening with Mauer, a native of the Twin Cities whose forthcoming signature on the new deal will ensure he'll retain his rock-star celebrity there.