54 replies to this topic

[Doomtints]

 

"Upon request by a Major League player to the Commissioner, the Commissioner may, on such conditions as he stipulates, consent to such player accepting a renewal of his contract at a salary rate less than eighty (80) percent of the rate stipulated for the preceding year, providing the salary rate is mutually agreed upon between the club and the player prior to January 10 and providing the request for consent to accept such salary is made by the player and received by the
Commissioner prior to January 10."

Twins not hamstrung by this at all.

 

The Player's Union tends to get involved when teams try to do this. Back in the day, A-Rod accepted what the Player's Union called a paycut and the union got the contract thrown out. The union feared it would set a bad precedent. Plus, I don't see the Twins screwing with a player in this way or Mauer agreeing. Contracts in the NFL are not guaranteed so we see this sort of thing happen all the time in the NFL, but we rarely see it in baseball where the player holds all the leverage.

Edited by Doomtints, 07 December 2017 - 10:42 AM.

[ThejacKmp]

 

The Player's Union tends to get involved when teams try to do this. Back in the day, A-Rod accepted what the Player's Union called a paycut and the union got the contract thrown out. The union feared it would set a bad precedent. Plus, I don't see the Twins screwing with a player in this way.

 

I tend to think that the players union wouldn't care about this. This isn't the Twins getting out of paying Mauer money. They're extending his career by paying him a faire wage. If they tried to pay him $4 million, the union would flip. But if they pay him a fair market wage of $8-10 million, I don't think the union bats an eye.

[Mike Sixel]

Zero reason to sign Mauer more than year to year, at the end of any given year. He's not going to another team.

[Thrylos]

The core of this team is 23-26 years old.

 

In trying to build a long-lasting competitive team, it makes no sense signing/extending/re-signing much older players, esp. if they are not at the superstar level and the DH position.Rooker will be the Twins' next first baseman, with maybe someone like Vargas (or a free agent you can sign to a 1yr contract) as a 1 yr stopgap. 

 

I think that Ryan Eades and Mark Appel have higher probabilities of being picked up than Kohl Stewart at this point.He has not shown that he is close

[USAFChief]

 

Zero reason to sign Mauer more than year to year, at the end of any given year. He's not going to another team.

And let's see what he does in 2018 before worrying about signing him for 2019. 2017 was his first 800 OPS since 2013, and he just barely made that.

[Taildragger8791]

I don't have much interest in hamstringing my roster with an expensive aging player that doesn't really fit well anywhere. Mauer is considerably below average offensively at 1B or DH. The defense is nice but I have to believe someone else can be more than serviceable while adding 40-50 RBI and 20-25 HR to the position. There's also a strong likelihood we'll need the flexibility to rotate more guys through that position in 2-3 years (Sano, Vargas, Garver, Kepler, Dozier, Rooker, Diaz).

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Fix the pitching before extending position players who are not in a contract year. The Twins can probably save $ on Mauer by letting him hit free agency first anyway. I don't see him going anywhere, and if he does go somewhere, so what?

 

The pitching can be addressed in 1 year if the Twins are smart, so it's not like position player contracts will be unresolved forever. 

 

Someone is itching to respond with "The Twins can do both" -- and sure, they could -- but so far we have seen nothing to suggest the Twins have changed their tight purse strings policy, and the Twins truly just have one immediate need right now.

 

Seems to me that extensions for guys like Buxton, Sano, etc. are a means of adding some cost certainty to players who will quite likely be as or more expensive if they went year to year.. and in exchange, they get a couple years of FA bought out too. I'm not sure how it would be considered extravagant to do such things. 

 

My point is that they can (and should) do both, and I highly doubt they are mutually exclusive as you seem to be arguing here.

[Major League Ready]

 

Last year, mauers performance was worth like 18M

How are you calculating this value?

[jimmer]

How are you calculating this value?

based on how much 1 WAR is worth.

[mikelink45]

What would we do without Mauer questions?He is a nice player who used to be a great player, but I do not believe that sentiment is going to stir our new front office.When I see someone suggest Hosmer I just see the same discussions - just a change of name.Neither one is a good signing for the future. 

 

Rooker is the only 1B/DH option I am interested in and I could see him making it to MLB at some time next year. 

[jimmer]

Rooker hasnt seen AA ball yet, has he? And only has 40 games outside of rookie ball?

[Twins33]

Rooker hasnt seen AA ball yet, has he? And only has 40 games outside of rookie ball?

Correct. He also hasn't played any 1B yet in this org.

I'd go year to year on Mauer, unless they go after Santana which I don't think they do.

[kab21]

 

"Upon request by a Major League player to the Commissioner, the Commissioner may, on such conditions as he stipulates, consent to such player accepting a renewal of his contract at a salary rate less than eighty (80) percent of the rate stipulated for the preceding year, providing the salary rate is mutually agreed upon between the club and the player prior to January 10 and providing the request for consent to accept such salary is made by the player and received by the
Commissioner prior to January 10."

Twins not hamstrung by this at all.


 

That likely deals with arbitration eligible players that work out contracts between the end of the season and the listed January 10th. Mauer will be a FA next year during that timeframe.

[spinowner]

 

If not spending on FA when our payroll is 95 mil and dropping, when?

When there's a player worth signing. Don't spend money on a mediocre player just because money is available.

[Mr. Brooks]

When there's a player worth signing. Don't spend money on a mediocre player just because money is available.

There are plenty of FA's worth signing right now.

[Riverbrian]

I don't want to see Mauer wearing another uniform. 

 

I also don't want to pay him a large amount of money. 

 

I'm hoping that both sides will be fair with each other. I hope Mauer doesn't try to squeeze extra money out of the Twins and I hope the Twins don't try to keep him with a low ball offer. 

 

I won't really have an idea on what that fair contract for both sides will look like until after the 2018 season concludes. 

 

Personally... I'm not looking to ask Mauer to retire until we have someone who out performs him. 

 

We don't have that yet... yet. 

 

 

[Steve Lein]

 

"Upon request by a Major League player to the Commissioner, the Commissioner may, on such conditions as he stipulates, consent to such player accepting a renewal of his contract at a salary rate less than eighty (80) percent of the rate stipulated for the preceding year, providing the salary rate is mutually agreed upon between the club and the player prior to January 10 and providing the request for consent to accept such salary is made by the player and received by the
Commissioner prior to January 10."

Twins not hamstrung by this at all.


 

 

Yeah, except this doesn't happen because there is the MLB Players Association

.

Edited by Steve Lein, 08 December 2017 - 08:38 AM.

[nicksaviking]

 

Yeah, except this doesn't happen because there is the MLB Players Association

.

 

Under normal situations I'd agree, but if the players association has the same understanding that we fans do; that Mauer will not be able to drum up any kind of bidding war because he won't play anywhere but Minnesota or possibly TB, they might come to the conclusion that Mauer really only has any kind of leverage over his next contract while he's still playing out his current contract.

 

Not that I'm in favor of an extension, I'm ready to move on. Nothing against Joe.

[bobs]

 

I don't know, is Stewart really much of a risk to get picked? I mean like last year our pitching went from terrible to not quite as terrible, and he was like 9,10,11...on the minor league depth chart. I doubt any team can look at him, potential and all, but look at that and see a place on a 25 man roster. I always thought they should try to work out more trades using the rule 5 though. 

 

And Im all for the wakefield contract, for everyone. $4m/yr mutual option forever? If all the money wouldn't just go to the owners, and they'd make tix and concessions dirt cheap. But if Mauer would be into it I think that would make sense for both him and the Twins.

I find it hard to believe that any major league team would try to hide him in their bullpen for a full season.His analytics numbers (swing and miss rate, K rate) are just not very good right now.Can't believe anyone would see enough upside to put him on 25-man all year.

[Major League Ready]

 

based on how much 1 WAR is worth.

This valuation has been thrown around here quite a bit.Is one WAR worth $8M or is one WAR the average production of free agents?Those are two quite different things.If we attempted to build a team on this premise, the payroll required to build a 98 win team would be roughly $400M.Our team has to average about $1.5M/WAR.No team can actually afford a $400M payroll, therefore I don't think one WAR is actually worth $8M, especially to teams with 50 or 60% of the top teams.