bcorwin3

There are many instances where baseball players have taken pay cuts to either stay with a team and/or make room for another players. Most notably Chipper Jones in 2005 took a huge pay cut to keep Tim Hudson/Furcal. To get paid/deserve the $23M as a 1B/DH, Joe needs to be putting up much more impressive numbers at the plate. Max Kepler has half as many at bats and more HR/RBI. Kurt Suzuki even has more RBI this year. Joe currently has the worst SLG of all Twins besides Centeno, Escobar, Santana, and Buxton. Just simply does not cut it. There are plenty of 1B out there who can do what Joe does at 1B with ease, only difference is about $20M/year.

Fielding is the only area Joe has met expectations over the last few years and I would argue that was fully expected as he was a gold glove C and the transition from C to 1B is incredibly easy. He should have volunteered to take a giant pay cut years ago. He barely talks in the clubhouse. He is a bust. What inspired you to write a pro-Mauer post?