The Twins and Joe Mauer have agreed to a 4 year $33 million deal and avoided an arbitration hearing in which Mauer was asking for $4.5 million and the Twins were offering $3.3 million. At first glance, a little over $8 million per year seems like a steal for the Twins. However, when you consider that Mauer would've been eligible for free agency in only one of those four years it starts to look like a fair deal for both sides.

Spring training will be starting up this week, and it's time to get back into the swing of things here at Twins Nation. I had hoped to give the site a full face-lift during the off season, but never got around to it. I still hope to get some things done in the next couple months. In the coming weeks I'll be starting things off with a team-by-team preview of the AL Central. Not every AL Central team was as inactive as the Twins this off season, so there will be plenty to talk about.