Update 1:05 pm - Some related news from around the internet...
- Peter Gammons has had a couple of Mauer-related Tweets today, saying "OK, the Joe Mauer signing story is 40 miles of bad road ahead of itself. But it can be done" and, about an hour ago, "Mauer contract is far from done, and could be quite some time before it's completed".
- Meanwhile, Bob Nightengale insists Joe "laughed at reports that he agreed to a 10 year contract with the Twins". I'm not sure what to think of that, as it pretty much calls Rosen's story ridiculous.
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Sticking with the Tweet-land theme, Aaron Gleeman wonders what it would have been like had a blogger, and not Rosen, broken the preliminary agreement news yesterday.
- Over at NBC Sports, Gleeman says the Twins are still talking, and doubts that the deal will be for a decade.
Good morning, Twins fans!
It was said best by Eric In Madison yesterday: There's too much smoke for there not to be any fire. While Rosen's WCCO report of a ten-year extension for Minnesota golden boy Joe Mauer may have been called premature, bits this big don't just fall out of the air. Here's what we know so far...
- Early Monday afternoon Mark Rosen of WCCO reported that the Twins and Mauer had come to a preliminary agreement on a ten-year contract extension.
- Ensuing reports could not confirm that an extension had been agreed upon and signed.
- There's been speculation that the framework for a deal has been laid out and likely agreed upon (from "two people close to the Mauer family"), but that the two sides are still working on the small print: deferred payments, details on incentives, and whether or not Minneapolis will now be called Mauerapolis.
- Whatever kind of contract this ends up being, it will be a "Legacy Contract": "It will recognize what Mauer has done for the franchise until now, and what he will do in the future, and it could be worth at least $20 million per year." I'd replace the word "could" with "will".
- There have been confirmed reports that clueless Yankee and Red Sox fans are doing one of two things: pretending they never made ignorant predictions about Mauer playing in New York or Boston, or crying. Intelligent Yankee and Red Sox fans resigned themselves to this deal months ago.
- This deal could now come at any time.
Stay tuned...