Thread: Mauer placed on waivers

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/9...pnews|bc|large

99% chance nothing happens, but interesting nonetheless.

I have two questions, one factual and one opinion...

1) If Mauer is claimed, and the Twins decide to let him go, can he veto it because of his no-trade clause? Is it a "trade" or is it "waivers?"
2) Can we see any way the Twins would have the balls to do that?

One more...
3) Should they do that?

I'll admit, I'm torn on 3.

Since Mauer was placed on "Revocable Trade Waivers" it is considered a trade and Mauer retains his veto rights.

MLBtraderumors is reporting that Boston's Pitcher Felix Doubront was claimed by an unknown team. Rosenthal is suggesting that Boston could be sending Doubront to the Twins as part of a trade for Mauer.

TR needs to have the balls to let him go. This is the easiest way to get the team in contention soon and may be the last time anyone is dumb enough to claim this albatross contact. Doumit/Butera at catcher and 23 mil towards starting pitching is way better than keeping a 23 mil sindles hitting DH. This may be the only chance they get for a do~over on Billys franchise strangling mistake.

I don't think Ryan has the guts to trade Mauer. I honestly don't.

I'm not entirely convinced it's a good idea, either.

And if he does go to the Red Sox, when did Billy Smith take over the GM position in Boston? Dealing Gonzalez and then picking up Mauer would be the type of move that'd make him proud.

Unless we can get a pitcher like King Felix or Verlander trading Mauer would be horrible. It would completely kill the casuel fan base.

I don't know why you wouldn't run every player through waivers just to gauge interest.

I don't expect anything to come of this but I have no problem with trading him. I also don't have a problem with not trading him. But maybe trading him would give this team a personality transplant.

Getting Mauer's salary off the books isn't going to help get a front line starter here. The money it takes to pay pitchers is only a fraction of the issue in dealing with aces. The Twins just aren't going to give an elite pitcher the years other clubs are willing to offer. In no way do I see Terry Ryan getting rid of the last seven years of Mauer's deal only to take on five additional years with Greinke. Ryan is terrified of pitchers, and frankly, five years of Greinke should be a little frightening, he's not the most stable of characters.

Almost zero chance Mauer is ever traded before the 2014 All-Star game at Target Field.

It hurts nothing to test the waters. I would deal him, but only for one legit MLB starting player in his prime years and at least one minor league big time prospect. But I would only do that if I planned to sign one elite free agent pitcher and another pitcher.

Trading Mauer for anything less then an Ace in their prime and an elite prospect would be unforgivable in my eyes.

You don't trade a hall of fame player in the prime of his career. Yes, he is owed a lot of money, but the Twins have the means to spend 100+mil from here on out.

I think TR needs to purge the team of all Bill Smith's mistakes. If that includes Joe's insane contract, so be it. By the same token, I think Joe knows he's got it made here with forgiving fans and rarely critical media. I can't imagine him signing off on a trade to a major market where fans whip Eveready 9-volts at you from the stands.

Separate out the PR aspect and trading Mauer is the logical baseball decision.

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

I have two questions, one factual and one opinion...

1) If Mauer is claimed, and the Twins decide to let him go, can he veto it because of his no-trade clause? Is it a "trade" or is it "waivers?"

Since Mauer has a no-trade clause he can veto any trade. Another option would be for the Twins to accept a deal where the claiming team agrees to assume the full contract and don't give up any players. In this way, it would not be a trade per se, but Mauer might have language in his contract to prevent this from happening. And the Twins would be idiots to do it.

2) Can we see any way the Twins would have the balls to do that?

I presume they would since they put him on waivers. They can always pull him back off of waivers. However, if they put him back on waivers again this season, because they've already pulled him back, they lose the option of pulling him back again. In other words, he would be on irrevocable waivers next time.

One more...
3) Should they do that?

I'll admit, I'm torn on 3.

Yes, they should do it, if they get value in return. However, the types of teams that would do this sort of a deal would likely be teams not in contention and can take on Mauer's contract and need a C/1B/DH and could give the Twins ML starting pitching. I can't think of any.

Boston seems to fit, but they would have to give the Twins one of their top two pitchers, so it seems unlikely they would do it. Seattle might deal King Felix but then they'd have Mauer's contract and they're well set at catcher.

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

I don't think Ryan has the guts to trade Mauer. I honestly don't.

I'm not entirely convinced it's a good idea, either.

And if he does go to the Red Sox, when did Billy Smith take over the GM position in Boston? Dealing Gonzalez and then picking up Mauer would be the type of move that'd make him proud.

This is all just hypothetical message board chatter for fun, right? Because I can't even start to entertain "trade possibilities" for Mauer. Seriously, until this guy holds a press conference wearing an Aaron Rodgers jersey with a grill, a Flavor Flav clock, and talking about how he doesn't really care for hotdish, there's no way this fanbase would ever let him go. And that's ridiculous, since we all know that Joe would never talk to the media on his own initiative.

My question as a front office "noob" is: Why do big name guys end up on the waiver wire every August when it looks like there's zero interest in trading them? I understand you can just pull them back anyway, but what's the point? Is there any transactional benefit to the Twins for "dangling him" in this way?

Originally Posted by StormJH1

My question as a front office "noob" is: Why do big name guys end up on the waiver wire every August when it looks like there's zero interest in trading them? I understand you can just pull them back anyway, but what's the point? Is there any transactional benefit to the Twins for "dangling him" in this way?

Generally, there's not much of a point in doing it. But every once in awhile, you get something like the Dodgers/Sox deal that just went through the waiver process. It's hard to pull that off but since there's no risk to dangling a star player, there's little reason not to do it, either.

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

Trading Mauer for anything less then an Ace in their prime and an elite prospect would be unforgivable in my eyes.

You don't trade a hall of fame player in the prime of his career. Yes, he is owed a lot of money, but the Twins have the means to spend 100+mil from here on out.

This is more wish than analysis on your part

Case in point regarding "the means to spend" argument which the Twins are in the process of completely blowing up:

The Baltimore Orioles-

on a hot streak,
hottest team in August-playing 16-8 baseball, a .667 clip,
revived from the dead for years on end to competitive,
third best record in the AL,
the best record in one-run games in baseball,
only 3.5 games behind the best team in the league, the Yankees,
playing in one of the best parks in all of baseball- Camden Yards,
playing a first place team in the White Sox- with a Cy Young favorite on the mound, Chris Sale
perfect night for baseball in Baltimore



drew all of 12,841 fans last night.

[QUOTE=powrwrap;50440]

Originally Posted by John Bonnes

One more...
3) Should they do that?

I'll admit, I'm torn on 3.

Yes, they should do it, if they get value in return. However, the types of teams that would do this sort of a deal would likely be teams not in contention and can take on Mauer's contract and need a C/1B/DH and could give the Twins ML starting pitching. I can't think of any.

Boston seems to fit, but they would have to give the Twins one of their top two pitchers, so it seems unlikely they would do it. Seattle might deal King Felix but then they'd have Mauer's contract and they're well set at catcher.

Okay, I'll bite, but only to make this point. Why would a team like Boston, New York, etc. want to take on a guy like this? A guy who will be 30 years old next year, and can catch a maximum of 85 games for you, IF he stays healthy. A guy who is a great contact hitter and table setter, but has shown little else to suggest that he's a $20+ million/year player that you'd want to pick up for the downside of his prime.

I think that contract is untradeable. Even with Morneau, who only has ONE year left on that deal, it would've taken a team in a crazy situation like the Dodgers, who were basically looking to spend money for big name players in any way possible. And that still didn't happen. Mauer will never be traded from the Twins. You think they have attendance problems NOW?

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

Generally, there's not much of a point in doing it. But every once in awhile, you get something like the Dodgers/Sox deal that just went through the waiver process. It's hard to pull that off but since there's no risk to dangling a star player, there's little reason not to do it, either.

Thanks. I figured as much, but since the Twins broke virtually every responsible spending rule they lived by for decades to retain Mauer, I'm surprised they'd do something even as insignificant as this from a symbolic perspective.