Joe Mauer Trade: Is Putting Star on Waivers the Right Call for Minnesota Twins?

It's waiver-trade season, and Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer is currently on the waiver wire.

This, of course, doesn't mean Mauer will be traded—in fact, a trade is very unlikely—as the Twins can revoke him from trade waivers at any time. However, with the recent events in Los Angeles, we've all been reminded that anything is possible.

Mauer, who signed an eight-year, $184 million contract extension prior to the 2011 season, still has about $142.5 million left on that deal. Regardless of the price tag, there will undoubtedly be suitors for the former MVP, who is such a commodity in today's league—a star catcher.

The hometown Mauer is now 29 and playing on one of baseball's worst teams in Minnesota. He's batting over .300 with an OPS over .800.

He will be entering his 10th MLB season in 2013, and some are speculating whether it's time for Mauer to be placed into a better baseball situation.

For the Twins, putting Mauer on waivers is more of a formality than anything. Some teams have been known to place all their players on trade waivers each August—to smokescreen the players they actually want to deal—just to revoke most of them later on. So it's tough to tell exactly what the Twins' intentions really are with this move.

If the team that claims him offers a package that Twins general manager Terry Ryan doesn't like, they can simply say "no thanks" and keep him as if they never waived him. It's a good position for the Twins to be in.

The team that claims Mauer has exclusive negotiating rights with the Twins for him. That team may not even be interested in the former batting champ, though. It's become pretty commonplace during this part of the season to claim a player strictly to block another team with a better record, and deny them the ability to claim him.

If the Twins really are searching for a deal-maker, they presumably won't have a hard time. 

Obligatory Dodgers speculation: L.A. does have A.J. Ellis as a respectable starter at catcher—although probably not respectable enough to turn away a Joe Mauer offer. However, Mauer's salary may be too much, even for the Dodgers, to haul in.

Count one team out though. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that the Red Sox will not be willing to take on the salary of a player that they were so enamored with years ago.

It's not easy to judge the Twins' intentions this early on in the waiver process. However, if the Twins lose their St. Paul, Minnesota, native without getting anything short of numerous top-tier rebuilding chips in return, the Twins may have to get used to the A.L. Central basement.