One Small Step For Mau, 184 Million For Twins' Kind

For  a guy who sounds like he never wanted to leave Minnesota, he certainly didn't get paid like it...

According to Buster Olney at ESPN.com Joe Mauer has signed an $184 Million deal with Minnesota to remain a Twinkie through his 34th birthday.  Along with one of the three richest contracts of all-time, Mauer will also recieve a full no-trade-clause and the hearts of millions (of Minnesotans).

Although, as Olney points out in his article, Mauer would have been the most wanted free agent on the market in years, it doesn't look like the Twins got that MUCH of a hometown discount from the MVP and gold glove winner.  HOWEVER, I do understand that if he hit the free agent market he probably would have gotten more from one of the larger market teams.  So the Twins did the right thing...

In general, I find this a huge win for baseball as a whole.  It's about a top-flight player not leaving where he developed, even if it is a smaller market (compared to NY and Boston).  It's a key to slowly inching back toward something baseball has long since forgotten, parity.  It's moves like this that will allow baseball to inch towards where Football is, not absurd money based divisions that Selig is looking into (here).

As a Mets fan I would have loved to had a chance to sign Mauer, but as a fan of baseball I'm glad the Mets won't have that opportunity.  In all honesty, I'm tired of seeing the Pirates stink, or a perfect storm need to occur for the Rays to compete.  I want to see different cities have top players and build teams around them.  And although, I admit it's not going to happen because of this signing, it is nice to see an organization which has been accused of being cheap, take a step in that direction...