I was eating lunch yesterday, my good friend sends me a text saying, " There is a Yankee fan at my poker table blabbing that the Yanks are trying hard to trade for Mauer. Any word on the Twins side?" (me) "small word on sox, but not yanks, I would love for the yanks to take that $23 million off the books, and get a few players" (buddy) I would think dumping that contract would be priority. If you get useful players as well, its all gravy. (me) I looked at all available for a sox trade, and us having $53 million to spend, we could really go after AJ, Scutaro, Sanchez, and McCarthy!! Plus prospects from Boston, I would be so fricken happy! (buddy) Do you trust Twins management to use the freed up resources constructively like that? I see them just pocketing the money and making some token moves to try and BS the fans" The conversation went on, and we came to the conclusion he is a good player not deserving of big money, compared him to a Mark Grace/ John Olerud.

I have thought about the Terry Ryan era, which obviously just started last year, I am sure he had some input on signing Mauer, whether he was for it or against it, I was thinking about the top priorities Ryan has. Wouldn't it make sense to have that really be a top priority if teams have interest? Taking 23 million off the books the next years, having your pitching rotation depleted, wouldn't it make the most sense to really overhaul your needs if you can free up $53 million. If you have the opportunity I take it right now. Yes, you take a PR chance, but reality is it isn't that much of a chance after coming off to horrible seasons and the Target Field show is the "new" thing anymore. Target field is amazing and people are going to go to the park if they are competitive, if the Twins are playing for 2015, Mauer isn't going to be the full time catcher, he could be the Mark Grace or John Olerud of the Twins. I don't want to pay $23 million for Olerud. I really believe dumping Mauer should be a top priority, he is healthy, and had the best OBS in the league.

If you look at my profile picture I am wearing a Joe Mauer jersey, I have a few of them, I like Joe Mauer!! At the time when we signed him I was happy for the Twins that he didn't go to the Yankees, as I despise the Yankees, but as happy as I was, I wasn't thrilled. Knowing this were to happen, I was a huge fan of signing Morneau, as he has been one of my favorite Twins players ever, and yes that signing has hurt due to injuries as well, still I really like Morneau. I will say this right now, as if you have read any of my other blogs or posts, If Joe Mauer is a full time catcher and bats in the 2 hole he is a phenomenal player, and very close to worth a lot of money. If he is not a full time catcher, or plays 3B or 1B in the latter half of the contract it will go down as one of the worst contracts the Twins will sign in order to be competitive.

Terry Ryan has a big hill to climb, the more I looked at the Span trade I thought it made sense, again I think those kind of moves will make sense in 2015 if we sign young pitchers now, McCarthy/Sanchez/Villanueva, I think it will be another waste of money signing Saunders, Liriano, Dempster. At that point we may as well let the Duduno, DeVries, Hendriks, Gibson crew go back out there and unload Morneau, Willingham, and try to unload Mauer. The Twins have a lot of decisions to make, the decisions I don't want is just for us to stay relevant today, if we are playing to win 82 games, that doesn't do much, and doesn't leave a lot of room for Ryan to rebuild this team.

To Summarize, if I was Terry Ryan I would agree with my buddy, #1 priority since the quarter of the 2012 season, take and woo clubs to ignite interest in offers for Joe Mauer, and if it is Boston, woo Mauer into hitting off the green monster and having spring training in the same place as the Twins. #2 priority rebuild this team to competitiveness with the money you have to spend this year with a very good lineup.

I dsagree entirely. I don't think trading Mauer is a good idea, at all. You are going to struggle to get comparable talent back. There is nothing in the system that can replace what he does, even if he is only catching half the games. Finally, I don't really see that his contract is big obstacle to being competitive. The issues are making good decisions and being healthy. Having more money to spent but having less talent to work with, because you have traded Mauer, isn't likely to make you a better team.

I like the fact that you totally disagree for a debatable issue, which I figured a lot of people would be against a trade, but freeing up $23 million a year, you certainly can add more talent, when you have a 3 hole batter hitting 10 HR a year that will eventually be a 3B, or a 1B, you are tremendously overpaying someone, if he is a full time catcher he is worth a lot of money, there is no question in my mind, I am just not seeing that happen. I truly believe with the talent that is coming through with what is going to be smaller $'s to those players we can build a talent bench around that having open money to spend. If we are not going to resign Morneau, after next year you already have another $14 million to work with, and you have Parmalee taking over. Losing Mauer and having $53 million this year, another $14 million next year, we have some really good options to fill a talented team. The $23 million a year we are spending on Mauer is just too much in my opinion. As I said before I think Mauer is a good player, not worth $23 million a year player.