Just a few days ago Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer signed a monstrous contract that will keep him in the Twin Cities for quite some time. Eight years to be exact. At least that's what the contract is aiming to do. The Twins wish to keep Mauer around for 8-years at the cost of $184 million dollars. Whether the Twins will be able to retain his services for the full eight years is something yet to be determined.
The Twins are widely considered to be a small to mid-market team. They do not have the financial graces of the New York or L.A. teams, but they manage to keep winning anyway. They are a perennial favorite to win, or at least compete in the American League Central. So then why would the Minnesota Twins decide to throw so much money at Joe Mauer now, when the team has succeeded in the recent past without such a lofty contract?
For one reason, the Twins have a new stadium to open in the 2010 season, which will bring in all sorts of new revenue, and make this new contract more affordable. For another reason, this season was the last year they had Joe Mauer under contract, and had the Twins gotten into a bidding war during the off-season with a team like the Yankees, they most certainly would have lost. But why eight years, and why such a high price tag?
Joe Mauer is a native son of Minnesota, and therefore one of the most beloved players in the game. For many Twins fans he represents a storybook rise to success. If the Twins hadn't been able to re-sign him, the morale blow would have been devastating. It would have shown conclusively that small market teams couldn't guard against waving money general managers from bigger cities taking away homegrown stars. So the Twins took a gamble. They knew it wasn't going to be cheap to keep Mauer, so they made him the priority and loosened the purse strings.
Joe Mauer is a fantastic talent and one of my favorite players in the game. However, I absolutely hate these types of contracts. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, professional athletes are overpaid. I agree they deserve to be rewarded handsomely for their tremendous efforts, but the contracts that they get today are ridiculous. But based on both his defensive and offensive prowess, Joe Mauer deserves to be paid just as much as other top performers in the game. He's a leader, and a clutch performer. But do the Twins really think that in 2018, when this new contract is up, that Joe Mauer's production will be worth $23 million a year?
When this new contract ends, Mauer will be 34 years of age. That is not so old in the baseball world. Many players have fantastic success at 34 years old, but most of them aren't catchers. The rigors of that particular position take a great toll on the body, and while many baseball minds have speculated that time at designated hitter, and possibly a move to first base could prolong Joe Mauer's career, there is no guarantee that either of those moves will work. And in the meantime, there is the huge risk that he will get hurt whilst playing the most demanding position in the game. Maybe Mauer can play all eight years at an extremely high level and win another MVP or two, who knows. But wouldn't it have been safer to sign him to a shorter contract, at maybe a higher price? It may have been, but they couldn't.
This is the frustrating part about baseball. Pretend you are a small market team. You take the time to draft well, develop a player, and see the fruits of your labor pay off when the guy makes it to the big leagues. You have control over him for a few years. Then free-agency hits, and the guy has the chance to make some money for his efforts, and deservedly so. But big money teams come in and start throwing money around, which causes you to compete, by throwing some of your money around. But the money you want to spend isn't good enough, so you have to up the amount, and the years, until you're stuck with a contract that doesn't make any sense, but at least you have your guy, right? But what if his knees go bad? What if he gets hit in the eye like poor Kirby Puckett? What if he gets in a car accident? Now your team is mortgaged to the hilt and you're screwed. It has happened before. Mo Vaughn made millions for horrendous play. Mike Lowell will make $12.5 million for riding the bench this year. And maybe the worse long-term deal ever signed, Mike Hampton made $121 million dollars between 2001-2008, when he posted a 56-52 record.
And it keeps happening! Barry Zito, Alfonso Soriano, Vernon Wells. Each one has signed a contract of at least $126 million in the last three years, and it looks like none of them will live up to the money or years invested. Again, I'm not saying athletes shouldn't be compensated, but teams are being forced into bad circumstances, possibly impacting the team for a decade or more, all because a few teams want to outspend everyone. Agents have all the leverage when they start bidding wars between clubs, which forces higher and longer deals to be made, and baseball suffers.
Joe Mauer is a great player. But if he gets hurt (which I hope does not happen) and his production seriously wanes, then I'm going to end up hating him. I'll hate him because he'll be a drain on whatever team he's on, making $23 million a year, and not being worth it. I wish Mauer the best luck in the world that this doesn't happen. But it will happen, to some team, again and again, until the MLB realizes that some kind of salary cap is needed to make sure these things don't ruin ballclubs.
I know the counter argument; 'You're just jealous because you're team can't spend the money and win. Why wouldn't you try and get the best player on your team every year?' My team, the Mets, do try and compete monetarily, and fail miserably, and look at what it has done to the team. These contracts are great for the individual, and for the two or three teams that can afford to do it every year, but bad for the other 20-something teams that can't waste that kind of money. Plain and simple, these contracts are bad for baseball. Congratulations on your contract Joe Mauer. I can't help but like you just a little bit less now. Not that you care.
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