Trout to Kiermaier: The richest signing of all 30 MLB teams
By Bill Felber
18. Minnesota Twins
Enough doom and gloom. Enough about players who were too costly to keep (Greinke, Stanton, Arenado), who got hurt (Strasburg) or who underperformed (Price, Yelich, Cano).
Time to celebrate an unqualified success.
Prior to the 2011 season, the Twins celebrated their relationship with catcher Joe Mauer by signing him to an eight-year, $184 million deal through 2018. Mauer moved to first base four seasons into the deal, but that isn’t the point.
The point is that both sides were actually happy.
Mauer made it a productive eight seasons for the team with which he spent his entire 15-season career. He topped .300 three times in those eight seasons, led the league in on base percentage once, and made the final two of his total of six All-Star teams.
At an average of $23 million per season, Mauer’s contract stood as the franchise richest for AAV until surpassed by Carlos Correa’s three-year, $105 million deal. That worked out to a $35 million AAV.
As previously noted, Correa then exercised his opt-out clause this winter and a few weeks ago signed a new and even more lucrative deal with the San Francisco Giants. When that fell apart, he signed instead with the Mets for nine seasons at $315 million.
The Twins’ current richest in cash is Byron Buxton, who last year signed a seven-season, $100 million extension.