Six years, $80 million. It looks like a bargain.
Earlier this year the Minnesota Twins signed first baseman Justin Morneau to a contract for those terms, making him the highest paid player in franchise history. The 27-year-old Morneau has rewarded the Twins with team leading totals in home runs, 15, RBI, 74, plus a batting average of .318, second on the club (among full season regulars) to Joe Mauer’s average of .319.
His home runs are about 22 percent of the team’s total of 69. That’s huge on a team that lacks power and has the fewest home runs in the American league, yet finds itself only 1.5 games out of first place in the Central Division behind Chicago.
Former Twins star Tony Oliva, who works for the team as a part-time coach, thinks Morneau could hit 40 home runs in a season. Except for Oliva’s former teammate, Harmon Killebrew, no Twin has ever done that.
But Morneau is a special player adept in both the field (two errors this season, five last year) and at the plate, and he’s already won one American League Most Valuable Player award (2006) and could win another this season. He ranks second in the league among RBI leaders and his batting average of .318 is only six percentage points behind Ian Kinsler of Texas. A second league MVP award would be a first in Twins history. Zoilo Versalles, Rod Carew and Killebrew were one time winners.
Morneau is making $8 million this season, according to espn.com. Albert Pujols of St. Louis and Ryan Howard of Philadelphia are both first basemen and former MVP winners in the National League. Their salaries are $13,870,940 and $10 million, per espn.com. Outfielder Valdimir Guerrero of the Los Angeles Angels and Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, the most recent AL MVPs other than Morneau, earn $15.5 million and $28 million.
The Twins wouldn’t trade Morneau’s salary, reportedly $8.4 million, for any of those mentioned above. With Morneau’s talent and upside (he’s younger than all four of them), it’s debatable whether they would swap him either.