Joe Mauer - $184 Million

[bahamamike]

Holy Crap - Thats a lot of money for the Twins.....what will Pujols sign for.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/b ... ?eref=sihp

[rotodog]

I almost fell out of my chair.....

I mean they couldnt get Joe to sign for 20 mil a year for 8 years at 160 mil? They couldnt convince him to take 20 mil now and take the security of the money a couple years ahead? A lot can happen to a guy in 2 years...Cant we all remember Young studs that have a couple good years and then get injured prior to the Free agent pay day and see there market dry up in a snap?

Would Joe have gone for more than that on the open market? I dont think so....I agree that if your going to sign a guy in Minnesota , its Joe Mauer... He is a local boy, he is a great kid, and well, he is pretty dam good...But I think they overpaid a bit here for the security that Mauer now has...

But who am i?

[aburt19]

It's not the money per year that I question, it's the length of the contract. Mauer has not been the picture of health and
catchers just get dinged up. I would have rather done and additional $2 million a season and signed him for five years.

[da_big_kid_94]

Remarkable though. The scion of the team passes away and suddenly those left behind found the combination to the safe. Quite a coincidence.

[50 Desert Eagles]

I think they done it JUST to keep NYY from getting him....those devils! I kept thinking, WHY didn't I become an agent...hell, I could pimp out a player and sell him....been doing that for yrs for myself for free....well I usually pay for dinner

[rotodog]

It's not the money per year that I question, it's the length of the contract. Mauer has not been the picture of health and
catchers just get dinged up. I would have rather done and additional $2 million a season and signed him for five years.

While I agree , there was no realistic way Joe mauer was signing for 5 years...Even at 28 million a year...They were talking 10 years but that was most liklely a ploy to start high...

It was going to take 7-8 years. But in giving him a contract of that length should have netted them a teeny discount I would hope. I guess they didnt want to argue about pennies ( actually millions) a year, but the twins seemed to be operating from a position of weakness here....When in fact, if they offered 8 years at 21 million,do you think Mauers camp was going to say no? I cant say for sure, but if they held fast, they could have saved almost 20 million....

When Joe became a FA next year, i just dont see anyone else going over 8 years...And then i dont see anyone else paying substantially more than 23 million a year....What happened to a slight hometown discount? The backend of that nontradable contract will hurt..just ask the Rockies...

[brian]

The Twins will regret not using some of Carl Pohlad's money to have at least designed Target Field in such a way that a roof could be added later. The construction precludes that. Amazingly short-sighted.

Pujols' opening bid should be $25 million per. The only real question is whether or not he will insist on topping A-Rod for the biggest contract ever. Those who think Pujols is exclusively a selfless helper of others may be surprised...

[bahamamike]

I am amazed for the ammount of money he signed for. I don't care that they are openning a new stadium, this team operates on limits. That ammount of money is going to really limit the financial flexibility of the team over the long run. Geez, if they were going to be spending that kind of money, why didn't they just poney up and keep Santana.

[da_big_kid_94]

I am amazed for the ammount of money he signed for. I don't care that they are openning a new stadium, this team operates on limits. That ammount of money is going to really limit the financial flexibility of the team over the long run. Geez, if they were going to be spending that kind of money, why didn't they just poney up and keep Santana.

Actually Mike, many pundits say he signed for less than he was worth. I also believe that the limits this team operated on were entirely self imposed by Carl Pohlad. I believe it was poster BigDaddy and I who had several animated discussions on this very topic back on the old boards. Carl Pohlad was annually on the list of the 400 richest Americans ... not so George Steinbrenner. Yet Steinbrenner regularly outspent him by god knows how much ...because Pohlad wanted to run the club as a business - he didn't want to supplement team operations with a large amount of his own money - even though he could have. His choice - and he had every right to decide that - but you get to live with the consequences of such decisions as well. Why did the Twins hold out for so much public funding for their new stadium - because that's what Pohlad wanted. Why didn't they sign Santana? Because Pohlad didn't want to ante up. The Twins may not have astronomical revenue streams ...but they are FAR from having limited resources at their disposal.

[cwk1963]

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard about this. 8 years is a loooooong time for a C and I don't see any hometown discount here. Then add a full no-trade clause on top of it? Seems silly to me from the Twins viewpoint.

I'm not so sure the Yankees would have signed him. I'm not saying they wouldn't, but they have a pretty good C coming up that will cost them a lot less and they can use the money elsewhere. They've seen the way to success is through matching up with their pitching and with Pettitte probably not coming back after 2010 and the status/reliability of Chamberlain/Hughes they will need to address that.