Mauer named AL MVP

NEW YORK - Joe Mauer sat behind a table on a podium in a conference room at the Metrodome when Justin Morneau shouted out the last question of the day.

"Are you finally going to buy dinner now?" Morneau said to his teammate from the audience, one MVP to another.

Mauer became only the second catcher in 33 years to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award, finishing first in a near-unanimous vote yesterday.

Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 had been the only catcher since Thurman Munson in 1976 to win the AL MVP. The other catchers to win in the AL were Mickey Cochrane (1934), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954-55) and Elston Howard (1963).

The Minnesota Twins star received 27 of 28 first-place votes and 387 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Mauer set career bests with 28 homers and 96 RBI. He had more walks (76) than strikeouts (63) and batted .378 from Sept. 13 on after Morneau's season-ending back injury, helping the Twins overtake Detroit for the AL Central title.

Yankees teammates Mark Teixeira (225 points) and Derek Jeter (193) followed. Detroit's Miguel Cabrera drew the other first-place vote and was fourth with 171 points, one point ahead of the Angels' Kendry Morales.

Mauer became the second Twins player to win in four years, following Morneau in 2006. Morneau gave Mauer a bottle of champagne.

"Hopefully, we can pop that open here a little later," Mauer said.

Born in St. Paul, the 26-year-old can leave the Twins and become a free agent after the 2010 season, when he is to make $12.5 million. Minnesota is expected to try to sign him to a new deal.

"I've always said it will happen when it needs to happen, and I truly believe that," he said. "I'm not the kind of guy that, you know, says by this date we need to have something done."

He enjoys playing in front of his family and friends and his preference is to stay with the Twins.

"Can we win here? Yes. Definitely. I think so," he said. "And that's ultimately what I would like to do."

For now, Twins General Manager Bill Smith didn't want to address the business side.

"All that contract stuff, that's for another day," he said. "I'll just say one thing: If you think if he finished second that the price is going to come down . . . No."