We all knew when the Yankees signed Jorge Posada to his final three-year deal before the 2008 season that they might have been angling for something else. The career-Yankee has had an outstanding career for the Bronx Bombers, and was given a huge standing ovation during his last regular-season game at Yankee stadium.
Today, the Yankees announced they have come to terms with former Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer for a record 6-year, $192 million contract. Including a $25 Million signing bonus, the Yankees will pay Mauer an average of $32 Million a year for the next 6 years to bring the catcher to the Bronx.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play for the Yankees,” Mauer said to the media. “I’m excited to be part of such a winning tradition.”
Coming off back-to-back World Series wins in 2009 and 2010, the Yankees addition of Mauer makes them even more formidable as opponents. With Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Mauer in the same lineup, the Yankees might have one of the best offensive teams of all time.
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Alright….obviously this is just a hope of mine. But you gotta figure the timing works out impeccably. The Yankees are not committed to Jorge past next season. Despite his obvious ability to still hit the ball, he is becoming more and more ineffective behind the plate.
With no prospect coming close to the abilities of Mauer, he will most likely be a Yankee in 2011 – they’ll pay him so much, he won’t be able to refuse. Despite missing the first month or so of the season, Mauer is hitting .378 with 25 HR and 77 RBI. If the crappy guys on the Twins lineup in front of him could actually get on base, he might have over 100 RBI right now.
At least for now, I can still dream, can’t I?
6 comments
August 21, 2009 at 8:09 pm
chappy81
Yeah, that actually sounds like a likely scenario… I’m probably more of a Yankee hater than anything, but Mauer will probably be a keeper in my fantasy league for years to come… I wrote how he should win the MVP over your new boy Tex earlier this week… http://doin-work.com/2009/08/19/early-predictions-for-the-mvp/
August 21, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Trevor
Chappy81 – (the Yankee hater) Mauer gets the MVP over everyone hand’s down. Tex is a great acquisition for the Yankees and probably deserves a gold glove for his defense, but no one can justify giving a guy with a .290 average an MVP.
Jeter can make a fair run for it if he keeps increasing his batting average. I can see some of the baseball writers of america voting for Jeets over Mauer simply because Jeets has had 2 or 3 MVP-like seasons, but still has not one won. I believe it was Mauer or Justin Morneau who stole it from him in 2006 (or was it 2007?)
Thanks for visiting the blog even though you’re a Yankee hater!
August 21, 2009 at 11:25 pm
chappy81
So you’re saying they might give it to Jeter because he’s been close a few times!?! I guess that’s kind of why Kobe won it this year wasn’t his best statistical year… Anyways, I’m still for Mauer all the way, unless he starts falling off dramatically it’s his to lose…
August 22, 2009 at 12:32 am
Chris
Chappy — how can you justify Mauer getting the MVP when he was out for a month and Jeter has played the full season in a new hitting role — leadoff?
If Mauer was subject to the SAME day-by-day rigor Jeter was AND the same media market, Mauer’d be my MVP…but Jeter deserves it all the way for his performance. Because a fool like Pedroia won it last year with “average” stats, Jeter can too…
August 22, 2009 at 12:43 am
chappy81
What!?! More day to day rigor?!?! Mauer is a catcher if you didn’t notice. Whopee he moved spots in the lineup, he was always an on base guy so that didn’t change his approach that much moving spots in the lineup.
Jeter is hitting nearly 40 points lower, has ten less homers, and 26 less RBI’s than Mauer… Stat’s don’t lie.
August 23, 2009 at 11:01 am
Trevor
Easy kids…
There are good arguments for either player. One could also argue that postseason will make a difference in voting – even though writers are not supposed to take that into account, many writers feel if your team doesn’t make the postseason, how could you be an MVP?
And chappy, that’s what I was saying – that many might vote for Jeter b/c he almost won it so many times, has had such a great career, most likely steroid free (I think Mauer is steroid free, also) and is such a great overall guy – every baseball writer likes Jeter.