Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Joe Mauer and the Twins “have begun talking about a new deal.” Walters offers no real details beyond that, and mentions nothing about the money or contract length being discussed, but does have a few quotes from team president Jerry Bell:
Bell’s statement that “we usually are able to work something out with players who we really want to keep” is interesting in light of the Twins losing Torii Hunter to free agency and trading Johan Santana to the Mets. Both players were hugely valuable and immensely popular in Minnesota, yet rightly or wrongly the Twins made no legitimate effort to retain either of them. Mauer, who figures to be named AL MVP later this month, will earn $12.5 million next season before becoming eligible for free agency. Ultimately if he wants to sign the largest possible contract the Twins are highly unlikely to win a bidding war on the open market, but the hope in Minnesota is that the St. Paul native will be content to sign a huge deal while still leaving some money on the table.
I feel good about it because I think he wants to stay here, and we sure want him to be here and all of his teammates want him to be here. We’ll see. I’m past the point where I get nervous about these things. It’ll get worked out. They usually do. We usually are able to work something out with players who we really want to keep.
I don’t think you need to characterize confident or not confident. I’m confident that we will have a good negotiation. To say I’m confident of the outcome, I don’t know. He has a good agent. We’ve done deals with him before.