Twins Give Mauer 8-Year Extension for $184 Million
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By TYLER KEPNER
The New York Times
March 21, 2010
JUPITER, Fla. — The Minnesota Twins are spending $195 million toward the construction of Target Field, an open-air ballpark that will open in Minneapolis next month. They spent nearly as much to retain their best player Sunday.
The Twins announced that they had signed catcher Joe Mauer to an eight-year, $184 million contract extension with a full no-trade clause, retaining his rights through the 2018 season. A news conference will be held Monday at the Twins’ spring training complex in Fort Myers, Fla.
The deal was a jolt of optimism for the Twins on a day that included sobering news about their All-Star closer, Joe Nathan, who will miss the season because of reconstructive elbow surgery. Nathan was found to have a significant tear of his ulnar collateral ligament on March 9, and Sunday he decided to have surgery after playing catch for 10 minutes.
Mauer, a native of St. Paul, turns 27 next month and will be 35 when the deal expires. There was no hometown discount for the hometown boy; the contract easily eclipsed Jorge Posada’s record salary for a catcher, and only Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter have ever signed for more guaranteed money.
Posada had been the highest-paid catcher, with an average annual salary of $13.1 million for the Yankees. Rodriguez’s Yankees contract guarantees him $275 million, and Jeter is in the final year of a $189 million deal.
Among active players, only Rodriguez has a higher average annual salary than Mauer’s $23 million. (Another Yankee, pitcher C. C. Sabathia, also makes $23 million a season.)
The record average annual salary was the Yankees’ one-year, $28 million agreement with Roger Clemens in 2007, though Clemens actually earned less because he did not join the active roster until June.
The Twins are not known for spending aggressively, losing the ace starter Johan Santana and the star center fielder Torii Hunter in recent years because they could not afford to re-sign them. But with their new ballpark ready, the timing was right for a deal with Mauer, who represented a special case.
Mauer, the No. 1 overall draft choice in 2001, helped steer the Twins to American League Central titles in 2006 and 2009.
He was the A.L. most valuable player last season, winning his third batting title by hitting .365. He also led the league in on-base percentage (.444) and slugging percentage (.587) while winning a Gold Glove. |
