Catcher Joe Mauer officially signed his eight-year, $184 million contract extension (2011 – 2018) in a press conference at the Lee County Sports Complex. The contract is the 4th highest contract ever signed in MLB as of that date.
Since his eight-year extension started in 2011 which is five years ago Mauer has the following stats (and look for the box that has Mauer’s batting stats for 2011-2015). Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for but I also remember how upset I would have been had the Minnesota Twins not signed Joe Mauer to an extension.
The reality is that long-term deals seldom work out as planned and most of the time favor the player. But in spite of what appears to be a distinctive advantage in these long-term deals for the players, their agents still found a way to swing the advantage in their favor even more by inventing opt-outs in the contracts. What’s next? Doubling a players salary if he is injured and out for the season? Sometimes I wonder if baseball GM’s and their players aren’t in cahoots. Baseball owners are wealthy but you have to wonder how they got that way because they don’t seem to be the brightest bulb on the tree. Then I wonder what that says about me, the baseball fan lifer who keeps buying tickets and follows the game day in and day out.