Around AL Central: Masterson’s contract, Santana could stay in KC & Mauer moving

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Cleveland Indians

The Detroit Tigers can sympathize with their division rivals when it comes to trying to work out long-term deals with their top pitchers. While the Tigers are deciding if they want to offer Max Scherzer a multi-year deal to alleviate some of the financial burden from the one-year, $15.525 million dollar deal signed to avoid arbitration, the Indians may be shelving plans to offer a multi-year package to ace Justin Masterson.

According to multiple reports, Masterson filed at $11.8 million and the Indians were at $8.05 million. It means the Indians have work to do in order to avoid something they despise: an arbitration hearing. The Indians have not been to a hearing since 1991 when Greg Swindell won and Jerry Browne lost.   They don’t want to resume now, but a $3.75-million difference of opinion is not easily compromised, even in the big-money world of MLB. Jeff Passan, MLB columnist for Yahoo! Sports, tweeted Friday night that the $3.75 million gap is the widest among the arbitration eligibles who exchanged figures. – Dennis Manoloff, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Masterson is coming off a 14-10 season with a 3.45 ERA and 1.20 WHIP (career numbers of 49-45,4.25, 1.32) and, like Scherzer, will be a free agent after the season.

Follow the jump for news on the Kansas City Royals.

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Minnesota Twins

Last week, we looked at how Cleveland is shifting catcher Carlos Santana to third base, and now another AL Central team is moving their catcher elsewhere.

The Twins are using the vacancy of one of their longtime franchise cornerstones to move the other cornerstone to a position they hope will keep him healthy. Former AL MVP Justin Morneau was traded last summer and, with his position at first open, Minnesota is sliding Joe Mauer there.

Knowing just how valuable Mauer is to the franchise, the front office and Mauer made the decision to get him out from behind the plate to a position that wouldn’t beat up his body on a daily basis. He had played a handful of games at first base over the last two season as a fill-in for Morneau, and he picked up the new position with relative ease.   Yet Mauer had been a catcher nearly his entire baseball career, dating back to his days as a three-sport athlete at Cretin-Derham Hall in nearby St. Paul. As much as Mauer loved catching, the new father of twin girls saw the bigger picture and knew the change was the right thing. – Tyler Mason, Fox Sports North

Mauer, himself a former MVP, has had trouble staying on the field. His career high in games played came in 2012 (147), but he is very productive when he does play. A lifetime .323 hitter, Mauer will be replaced behind home plate by Kurt Suzuki.

Follow the final jump for news from the Chicago White Sox

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Chicago White Sox

We talked last week about how the White Sox struck out on signing Masahiro Tanaka and that they were unlikely to funnel that money elsewhere, however recent reports indicate that Chicago may not be done.

The White Sox are still in search of a long-term solution behind the plate. The team is prepared to go to camp with Tyler Flowers, Josh Phegley and Rule 5 draftee Adrian Nieto. The club also could be in the market for an additional starting pitcher. Hahn has said repeatedly in the past he always is searching for more arms and the White Sox made a hard push for Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. – Dan Hayes, Comcast Chicago

The White Sox may not have to spend much if they are able to trade some duplicate and/or unwanted parts of their current team. They have Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza in left field, and two veterans in Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham keeping prized prospects in the minors.

Chicago also would love nothing more than to dump Adam Dunn. His hefty contract and (mostly) substandard years has been a bit of an albatross for the franchise.