The Joe Mauer deal: Is it really great for baseball?

It seems there is little doubt everywhere I look that Mauers new 8 year 184 million contract is the best thing that could have happened for the Twins AND more importantly for the sport of baseball, and specifically the small market team. Here is a team, just years removed from contraction talk, moving into a beautiful new outdoor ballpark, with a budget now approaching 100 million and their best player and hometown hero locked up for the forseeable future. Fans in New York and Boston, take note, you're not gonna sweep in and get all the best players, the small market teams are taking a stance, and it starts today.

Or at least that seems to be the conventional wisdom, but I have to wonder how much help this really provides for anybody. Make no mistake, Joe Mauer did not take a hometown discount on this deal, which, however you want to break it down, is one of the 5 richest deals in baseball history. Instead I think it might be fair to say this is exactly the sort of deal that handcuffs small market franchises for years to come.

Is it possible that the Twins will get full value for this signing: yes, in baseball terms this amount of money could end up providing relative rewards, but that relative is thanks to the market established by the Bostons and New Yorks having ratcheted up the market on great players to absurd heights. It seems more to me a victory for the big market teams that established a bar so high that the only way the small markets can compete is to empty the coffers on one player, than sit back and cross their fingers.

The biggest mistake here was the Twins lack of foresight in not signing Mauer, hometown wonder-kind, to a long term contract 3 years ago when his talent was no less obvious than it is today. (At that time they signed him to 4 years at 33 million) Keep in mind this extension comes on the heels of his best season to date. And for a catcher. I wont argue that a catcher can't stay in the game, and behind the plate, into his forties, but to stay productive, and I'm talking 23 million dollars a year productive for 150 games a year into his late 30s, certainly remains in doubt, no matter how great Joe Mauer is today, at age 27.

I have to think that ownership in places like Washington and Pittsburgh uttered a collective "fudge" upon seeing the market for their young up and coming stars like Stephen Strasburg and Pedro Alvarez get placed into a stratosphere here-to-for unmatched by all but the most ridiculous overspenders in the game.

As a fan i know I'll be thinking "I hope Travis Snider can become a great player some day, BUT not too great - not 200 million dollars great" because no matter how much I might like a player I dont want my team spending that kind of dough on one guy- it's too risky and too expensive. I've already been priced out of going to too many games myself, and that's to watch a team that never wins , heaven forbid we ever make the playoffs again, because you know that pricetag is being passed along to the fans.

I know its hard to predict where and when to spend your money on young talent. For every Evan Longoria, who the Rays locked up for 6 years at 17.5 million (with 3 club option years at 27 mil. more) after he had played a handful of games, theres an Eric Hinske, who recieved way too much money after a rookie of the year campaign, which turned out to be 14.75 million too rich and 5 years too long.

It's obviously difficult business deciding just who exactly you're going to hand over the keys to your franchise to, but with a little bit of foresight 3 years ago, the Twins could have avoided, not only putting all of their eggs in one basket, but putting every other small market teams eggs in one basket too.

So congratulations Twins fans, you get to keep one of the best players in baseball for the rest of his career but don't count me amongst the fans applauding the Twins for doing what's best for the sport of baseball.