SD Fan

Every player has an off field value, yes. But I believe that number is figured into the total deals already. You can't separate the two because it's too difficult to say with any certainty what a players off field value really is. In Mauer's case, I believe his is quite a bit higher than most, if not all current MLB players(Jeter might be close). I just feel like people need to let it go and enjoy watching him play without breaking down everything into dollars. I realize it's a business, but the look on my kids faces when he comes up to bat and we're live at the game is priceless to me. Sometimes you just have to overspend on the name brand products and it's ok. The Twins made the right decision with Mauer. But that's just my red neck south dakotan opinion.

I had to make an account to dissagree with this. I live in western SD and have been a Twins fan my entire life. I drive my family the 10 hours to Target Field for a weekend every summer. I do it so when my kids grow up, they can say, "I got to see Joe Mauer play baseball when I was a kid." We all have Mauer jerseys, Twins hats, etc. If they wouldn't have paid him, I wouldn't do any of that, I wouldn't watch every game on FSNorth. I would be done with baseball because I am so sick of the bleepin Yankees paying all the best players to leave. I probably would have completely sworn off the entire State of MN, never to return or even acknowledge it's existance. My kids would flunk geography because there would just be a big blank hole next to SD on our maps. Make no mistake, he may never hit more than 15 HR's again or be worth $23M to any other ball club, but he is definately worth the $23M to the Twins!