Mauer placed on waivers

[Willihammer]

It may be the organization's way of signaling to players that they aren't playing favorites, and everyone's job isn't safe, even (cough) Mauer's.

[Guest USAFChief]

I wonder how this all would have played out had the Twins moved Mauer to 3b years ago as they should have.

[ashbury]

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

 

Sort of like saying a surgery will go well if you separate out the part about keeping the heart beating during the procedure.

 

A general manager has to synthesize all the aspects of the team, including PR. I think it's true that more businesses go under due to cash flow than due to debt per se. The Pohlads are in a position to buffer the cash flow if they want, but still the business principle will be applied. If a trade makes sense for 2016 but stands to kill attendance and cash flow for the coming three years, the GM and his staff may not be around to reap the benefits.

[jokin]

I wonder how this all would have played out had the Twins moved Mauer to 3b years ago as they should have.

 

D**M Straight!

[rickyriolo]

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.

 

Mauer would bang line drives off the green monster in LF in Fenway with regularity. The Red Sox need help at catcher and DH. I believe they are going to dump Ortiz, a free agent after this season. Since the trade with the Dodgers, James Loney is their regular first baseman. Mauer could spell Loney at 1B as well. Or the Red Sox could try Mauer at 3B.

Loney is a free agent next year 2013. Mauer not going to agree to a trade to the Hated RED SOX

[Fire Dan Gladden]

First off, I am very surprised the team went this route. The only real risk a team has for putting a "superstar" on revocable waivers is that it could alienate the player. This leads me too one of two conclusions:

 

a) The team is seriously considering moving him

Mauer requested to be put on waivers to test the market

 

I don't believe moving Mauer is a good idea on many fronts, the major one being that players like Joe do not come around very often. He is very much HOF caliber, you almost always overpay for these types of guys. Keep him as a Twins lifer and move on.

 

That being said, if Joe is moved, it signifies to me that this team will be bad not for 1-3 years, but 4-6 years or more (think 1990's). It would tell me the front office has thrown in the towel and will revert back to the days of $15-25 mil payrolls and play only young guys. It would be devastatingly bad across the board.

[DaveW]

I wonder how this all would have played out had the Twins moved Mauer to 3b years ago as they should have.

 

Never saw this comment coming....

[Boom Boom]

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

 

Sort of like saying a surgery will go well if you separate out the part about keeping the heart beating during the procedure.

 

A general manager has to synthesize all the aspects of the team, including PR. I think it's true that more businesses go under due to cash flow than due to debt per se. The Pohlads are in a position to buffer the cash flow if they want, but still the business principle will be applied. If a trade makes sense for 2016 but stands to kill attendance and cash flow for the coming three years, the GM and his staff may not be around to reap the benefits.

 

I guess my point is that if Mauer wasn't from MN, if he was Dominican or Venezuelan or Texan, there wouldn't be nearly as much controversy should the Twins look to trade him. It's the shortest of all shortcuts to rebuild the team.

[Riverbrian]

First off, I am very surprised the team went this route. The only real risk a team has for putting a "superstar" on revocable waivers is that it could alienate the player. This leads me too one of two conclusions:

 

a) The team is seriously considering moving him

Mauer requested to be put on waivers to test the market

 

I don't believe moving Mauer is a good idea on many fronts, the major one being that players like Joe do not come around very often. He is very much HOF caliber, you almost always overpay for these types of guys. Keep him as a Twins lifer and move on.

 

That being said, if Joe is moved, it signifies to me that this team will be bad not for 1-3 years, but 4-6 years or more (think 1990's). It would tell me the front office has thrown in the towel and will revert back to the days of $15-25 mil payrolls and play only young guys. It would be devastatingly bad across the board.

 

I agree with everything you say except the last paragraph. Long periods of mediocrity comes from thinking your a move or so away. The Twins have to get serious about the pitching. If blowing up the offense is the cost. It must be paid. Not fixing the pitching will lead to a long period of mediocrity. Trying to right the ship with vets like Carroll or Stephen Drew will lead to the long dark period.

 

With that said... I'd like to see Joe stay a Twin for life. Move other offensive players.

 

On your A and B... I agree... Something is up. Twins Daily readers and leaders... Do your digging.... I'll be checking back for info.

[powrwrap]

Mauer requested to be put on waivers to test the market

 

I've never heard of this happening in the past. I suppose it is possible, but why would the Twins entertain Mauer's request since it's possible the result would be favorable negotiating points for Mauer and his agent? I think the likely scenario is that the Twins wanted to test Mauer's value and then decide whether or not they want to take action or decide to share that info with him.

[Twins Twerp]

This is standard procedure. Mauer is going down on the right hand of Kirby Pucket as the best Twin of all time. No way, unless a team blows up their farm system and gives good major leaguers up for Joe. The 20+ million a year is at least doubled with shirt, ticket, and food prices this guy brings in. It would be suicide to do it before the ASG of 2014. I see 99% chance they pull him back.

[MNScottishTwinsFan]

This has to be the dumbest statement I have ever read

 

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.

[Ultima Ratio]

Do the Twins know something about Joe that we don't? <<<conspiracy theory>>>

[Guest USAFChief]

I wonder how this all would have played out had the Twins moved Mauer to 3b years ago as they should have.

 

Never saw this comment coming....

What you didnt see coming were the multiple issues caused by leaving Mauer at catcher. Some of us did.

[Twins Twerp]

This is going to come off rude, don't mean it that way, but it is a real question. Do any of you follow baseball outside of the Twins? After reading most of these posts it makes me question if you do. My guess is you all do but very few of you understand the waiver dead-line. If you did you would understand why Mauer is on waivers. First rule of waivers: don't talk about waivers.....err...that's fight club. First rule of waivers: EVERYONE GOES ON WAIVERS! There is NO downside of just putting people up there. The team can pull back the player at any time for any reason.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

The site above is not a Twins blog site but a site for, as its name says, baseball trade rumors. If you click through the older posts a bit you will see a ton of guys who are just as "unmoveable" who were put on waivers. The Yankees are currently in 1st place and they put CC, Tex, Cano, and Jeter, just to name a few, on waivers. EVERYONE GOES ON WAIVERS for that just in case crazy trade like the Agon one. If someone is going to throw their future away and blow you away why not?

 

Due to how waivers limit teams, if a player is claimed, to just one team to negotiate with they almost never amount to anything outside of the smaller trades. I promise you this isn't the first year Mauer has been put on waivers, or claimed for that matter, and it wont be his last. I can promise almost every player, if not every player, on the Twins roster is currently on waivers or were on waivers at sometime.

 

That statement has been made multiple times throughout this thread. And yes, you did come off rude.

[ashbury]

a) The team is seriously considering moving him

Mauer requested to be put on waivers to test the market

 

c) Gives Ryan a sense of where the opinion shapers and fanbase really would be if such a trade were pursued in earnest later on.

[ashbury]

I guess my point is that if Mauer wasn't from MN, if he was Dominican or Venezuelan or Texan, there wouldn't be nearly as much controversy should the Twins look to trade him. It's the shortest of all shortcuts to rebuild the team.

 

Yes, but he is, so the shortcut is full of brambles and maybe a pitfall.

 

You can't make a personnel decision like this without considering all the relevant aspects. It would be like deciding not to offer $21M/3 to Josh Willingham based on just his low career batting average.

 

I don't really disagree with your what-if, but it's kind of like (my hazy recollection of) an old Saturday Night Live skit: "What if Eleanor Roosevelt... had been born a horse?"

[jokin]

a) The team is seriously considering moving him

Mauer requested to be put on waivers to test the market

 

c) Gives Ryan a sense of where the opinion shapers and fanbase really would be if such a trade were pursued in earnest later on.

 

So the self-confident, seasoned veteran and prime exponent of the "Twins Way" has resorted to manage via trial balloon? Not much of a master plan.

[kab21]

I honestly fail to see the point in trading Mauer. It might free up payroll space but the alternative is dropping 60+M on two 30+ yr old non-ace starters instead of one (they can afford to get one pitcher this offseason) with that money. While that would improve the rotation I don't see it actually making the team better, short-term or long-term. The Twin's problem isn't that they don't have cash available to spend but rather that there aren't many good options to spend it on.

[Guest USAFChief]

FWIW, Rosenthal is reporting that Mauer cleared waivers. If true, it appears nobody was willing to take a chance on getting that contract.

[Pius Jefferson]

I think Mauer is done being a full time catcher. There is apart of me that wonders what would happen with a competent training and medical staff.

[Riverbrian]

Mauer cleared waivers... I am completely lost... Can someone explain this August Waiver thing to me?

 

I do not understand the point of running him through waivers at all. I don't understand how Ivan Dejesus Jr. Or Jerry Sands can clear waivers with little money attached to them.

 

I don't understand August at all. It's not for lack of trying and I swear to god.. I'm not as dumb as I seem.

 

Can someone explain the August waiver process and I believe you will need to use small words and parables.

[The Greatest Poster Alive]

Mauer cleared waivers... I am completely lost... Can someone explain this August Waiver thing to me?

 

I do not understand the point of running him through waivers at all. I don't understand how Ivan Dejesus Jr. Or Jerry Sands can clear waivers with little money attached to them.

 

I don't understand August at all. It's not for lack of trying and I swear to god.. I'm not as dumb as I seem.

 

Can someone explain the August waiver process and I believe you will need to use small words and parables.

 

By clearing waivers Mauer could be traded to any team in baseball at any time.

 

If a team claims him on the first time a player is sent through waivers you either work out a trade with the team that claimed him, let the team that claim him have the player for no compensation, or the team that put him on waivers can pull him back.

[Riverbrian]

Mauer cleared waivers... I am completely lost... Can someone explain this August Waiver thing to me?

 

I do not understand the point of running him through waivers at all. I don't understand how Ivan Dejesus Jr. Or Jerry Sands can clear waivers with little money attached to them.

 

I don't understand August at all. It's not for lack of trying and I swear to god.. I'm not as dumb as I seem.

 

Can someone explain the August waiver process and I believe you will need to use small words and parables.

 

By clearing waivers Mauer could be traded to any team in baseball at any time.

 

If a team claims him on the first time a player is sent through waivers you either work out a trade with the team that claimed him, let the team that claim him have the player for no compensation, or the team that put him on waivers can pull him back.

 

Ok... So I've understood it all along... Now can someone tell me... why the ridiculous excersize of running Joe through waivers if he is going to go unclaimed. What is accomplished by that? Certainly any trade value he has could be discussed in July or January for that matter. No need for the gauging of the market in my opinion. At least there shouldn't be.

 

And how can the young Dodgers clear waivers and make it to the Red Sox. Cheap... And teams have holes in the OF and IF. Why wouldn't the Twins claim DeJesus Jr. Is it a gentlemen thing... Call the teams in front and ask nicely to let the players through.

 

Your definition is exactly what I've understood... I'm gonna need the parables on the gamesmanship of it.

[joeboo_22]

The young dodgers didn't clear waivers, they are officially submitted as players to be named later and will be later on. Another confusing part of trades. But everyone knows who they are.

[Nick Nelson]

The basic fact of the matter is that if the Twins want an extra $23 million to spend on other things, they need to just spend it. There's no excuse for trading away their best player for nothing (and believe me, if they found a taker willing to absorb his entire contract, they'd get nothing in return) because they're unwilling to push payroll to $120M to get the players they feel they need to contend.

[Riverbrian]

The young dodgers didn't clear waivers, they are officially submitted as players to be named later and will be later on. Another confusing part of trades. But everyone knows who they are.

 

DeJesus Jr. cleared. At least I think he did.

 

OK... Why this Mauer trip thru the waivers?

[Shane Wahl]

How is ANYONE taking this seriously? This is a standard thing (that he cleared is what is "newsworthy") and it would be a barbarically dumb decision for the Twins.

[Shane Wahl]

This is standard procedure. Mauer is going down on the right hand of Kirby Pucket as the best Twin of all time. No way, unless a team blows up their farm system and gives good major leaguers up for Joe. The 20+ million a year is at least doubled with shirt, ticket, and food prices this guy brings in. It would be suicide to do it before the ASG of 2014. I see 99% chance they pull him back.

 

It's 100% and it is LAUGHABLE to see people taking this seriously. Good god. This non-story is akin to a Fox News political story in value.

[jokin]

How is ANYONE taking this seriously? This is a standard thing (that he cleared is what is "newsworthy") and it would be a barbarically dumb decision for the Twins.

 

This "standard thing" has been forever altered by a team from Los Angeles that has introduced Major League Baseball to a Brave New World. What they have wrought with the Boston Red Sox acquisitions may well turn out to be the most barbarically dumb decision ever if it invokes some kind of insane "arms (and bats) race".