Joe Mauer Closer to Leaving Minnesota

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

In case you haven't noticed, Joe Mauer homered in his third consecutive game last night giving him twenty-five on the year. All this coming from a guy whose career high was thirteen prior to this season.

Mauer, a Minnesota native, was ready to go down in history as a pure singles and doubles hitter, Minnesota strategy at its finest, as their version of Tony Gwynn. Then suddenly, after his May 1 return to the team following off-season surgery, newfound power emerged as Mauer ended the month with eleven home runs and 32 RBI.

Something seemed fishy, at least to me.

Now this is not a steroids witch-hunt column. Chances are he simply got his power from post-surgery rehabilitation regimine and hard work ethic. However, it should also be considered that some of the recovery drugs we always hear athletes take in order to "get back quicker to their team that needs them" needed more time to wear off.

Drugs in baseball at the present time is a dirty word, so let me use that word only from a medical stand point. There are many good, legit drugs that help people in general recover and this is what I am arguing in this column, that it took time for them to wear off. This is basically a "Damn it, why now?" Column. Why not until after he's re-signed like in the first or second year of a ten year contract? Then we can enjoy the numbers without looking over our shouder like I have chosen to do.

If Rob Parker and Skip Bayless can discuss the possibility of Albert Pujols potentially being on something on ESPN First Take simply stating that they hoped he was clean because the game basically needs a good guy leader when it comes to this with the shadow of doubt everywhere then I should be able to say the same about Mauer.

As a Twins fan and a Mauer fan, why would I be accusing him of anything? I'm not. I'm simply echoing that as a fan of the team he plays for, I too hope he's clean since he's their Pujols but its kind of a guilty until proven innocent climate.

Contract looming

Without this turning into a "first they lost Hunter, then Santana, and now Mauer" column, Mauer picked a pretty bad time for him to have a career year, and for him that says a lot based on his gaudy statistics that keep getting better.  The only thing worse was if Mauer did this in a contract year (next year). He'd likely be looking at something in the neighborhood of $27-30M a year-A-Rod money.

Every home run that Mauer, hits, how much does his price go up? A million a season? Soon they'll be able to market Mauer as a legit 30 HR threat, maybe 40 they pace he's going, even though he'll only have done it once. People claim that he's able to do this due to early season rest after missing all of April. We'll next season when he deosn't have the liberty of rest, I expect his numbers to go back to normal as people ask--what happened? The answer will be, this was simply a career year, even for him, power wise. A flash in the pan and the rest really helped.

But the damage is already done. After this season, Mauer and his agent will be able to argue successfully based on recent evidence that in addition to being an All-World catcher, 2 time AL batting champ (soon to be three), three time All-Star and one time starter, home run derby participant, they can now boast home run hitter? Thats only going to make him all the more appealing, and expensive for the competition salavating to sign him.

Can you imagine if Mauer hits .400 this season? Something that hasn't been done since 1941? That's only going to drive his price up even more as the Elias Sports Bureau crazed people, Fantasy sports fans, and baseball historians will only continue to inflate his value by touting this rare accomplishment.

The Twins might as well right off any chance they might have had to sign him if it ever gets to that point. ESPN would be so gaga over him that he might as well shave those sideburns since the Yankees brass don't allow facial hair while playing for them.

Now imagine mixed in all this, that Mauer additionally wins MVP as a result. Just another fact that his agent, Ron Shapiro, will be able to argue on Mauer's behalf. Like A-Rod did for Texas in 2000, Mauer may be winning MVP for a non-playoff team which is rare in any sport.

First Hunter....

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