Starting pitcher Joe Nathan just got a huge pay raise from the Minnesota Twins.  The Twins and Nathan have agreed on a new four year contract with a club option for a fifth year that will pay Nathan $47 million dollars.  If Nathan stays with the Twins for the entire contract he would be in his upper thirties and I don’t know if he would be worth that kind of money at that age.

Nathan gets $11.25 million in each of the next four seasons, starting with 2008, and the Twins have a $12.5 million option for 2012 with a $2 million buyout.  The price of the option can rise to $14 million, going up by $500,000 each for 55 games finished in 2010, 55 games finished in 2011 and 110 games finished in 2010 and 2011 combined. Also, Nathan said the deal contains a limited no-trade clause.

What do you think Twins fans? Is that too much money for Nathan right now?  He probably would have cost a lot more after K-Rod signs during next offseason and sky rockets the price of good closers.

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Philip Humber, Denard Span, Jason Pridie, and Brian Buscher were all sent to Triple-A Rochester by the Minnesota Twins on Monday.  Humber was the guy with the best shot at making the big league team but he was beat out by Brian Bass.

We can expect to see these players later in the year more then likely.  Especially Humber who will work his way onto the big league roster at some point this season.

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News out of Twins spring training camp is that speedster Carlos Gomez will be the starting center fielder for the Minnesota Twins on openind day.  The Twins aren’t expecting much offensive production out of the youngster, but do hope that he can get on base and steal some bases and score some runs.

The Twins are also saying that it looks like Francisco Liriano will start the season at Triple-A.  Liriano needs to get some more innings in and show the team that he is definately back from Tommy John surgery.  Right now he isn’t 100%, and needs to build some strength and make sure his arm is all ok.

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