But in my opinion," said one scout, "the next catcher for the Yankees will be Joe Mauer. Imagine if the Twins don't sign him and he goes out there on the market next winter with both the Yankees and Red Sox in need of a catcher? That will be the wildest bidding war in baseball history, and don't think his agent doesn't know it. And if they (Twins) decide to trade him, the Yankees have the better pieces to get him."Madden himself is not so optimistic:
I still can't believe it will ever come to that. With their new taxpayer-funded, open air Target Field (on which they refused to spend the extra $10 mil to equip with a retractable roof), the Twins cannot afford to let their hometown catcher leave - and yet there have been some unsettling rumblings out of Minneapolis and Fort Myers that the two sides remain far apart with an opening day deadline looming.
Looking at the Yankees new philosophy on spending, signing Mauer doesn't make much sense for them. They will need a catcher to replace Posada, but with Romine and Montero in the minors, they're much more likely to go with one of them instead of forking over another $100+ million long-term contract, even if it is to the best catcher in baseball.Meanwhile, there are a lot of people around the Yankees who believe that a catcher - no matter how accomplished - is the last position they should be looking to invest a lot of money, or prospects, to acquire. Bench coach Tony Peña, who is also the organization's primary catching guru, has seen enough of Montero and Romine these past two springs to state affirmatively that both are now on the fast track to the big leagues.
Of the hulking 6-4, 225-pound Montero, on whom the knock is his work ethic and his ability to block pitches and position himself to throw, Peña said: "He still has to grow into the position. He's so tall it's going to take longer for him to feel comfortable. That's no excuse. He has good hands, a strong arm and throws the ball well, but he's a little 'long' sometimes, which is what we're working on. I know his bat is there and he wants to make it as a catcher. He doesn't want to move anywhere else. That's why I'm here to help, but if you want to be good, you have to work hard at it."
As for Romine, well, Peña has a special interest in him, if only because he's known him since he was 2 years old. Romine's dad, Kevin, was Peña's teammate with the Red Sox in 1990 and '91 when little Austin was a spring training toddler.
...
"Austin's got real soft hands," Peña said. "He receives the ball well; he's got a real good arm with accuracy on his throws. And don't discount his bat. He's going to hit and hit for some power in the big leagues. He's got a great future and he's come so far in every area in a very short time."
