By Kelly Thesier / MLB.com

11/24/09 3:07 PM EST

INNEAPOLIS — Twins general manager Bill Smith is well aware of the unusual perk that his team currently possesses in having two MVPs on its roster.

When Justin Morneau won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 2006, it had been nearly 30 years since a Twins player took home the honor. With Joe Mauer being named the near-unanimous winner of the ’09 AL MVP honor on Monday, the Twins have now had two winners of the award in the past four years, and both of those players are set to be donning a Twins uniform next season as well.

“We’re fortunate we’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime player in Joe Mauer,” Smith said. “We’ve got one in Justin Morneau, too. … It’s very rewarding.”

Rewarding for a team, yes, but having players of that caliber gets expensive as well. While the Twins have Morneau locked up through 2013, the goal for the club this winter is to make sure Mauer won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable future either.

Mauer is getting set to enter the final season of a four-year, $33 million contract that he signed before the 2007 season, and his future is a hot topic around the Major Leagues. After all, the 26-year-old catcher is a two-time Gold Glove winner and a three-time AL batting champion.

With Mauer considered a hot commodity, even a year before he reaches free agency, it was no surprise that many of the questions from the national media during Mauer’s MVP conference call on Monday were in regards to his contract status.

“I knew I’d probably run into a question like that,” Mauer said. “I’ve always said it will take care of itself when it needs to.”

For the Twins, that time is this winter. The club is expected to negotiate a new contract in earnest now that the MVP celebration is over and there is no question that the Twins place a high priority on keeping the St. Paul native in Minnesota. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Tuesday, the pace of those negotiations is promising.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep him as a Minnesota Twin,” said Morneau, who signed a six-year, $80 million deal before the ’08 season. “The biggest thing now isn’t the money. It’s going to be whether or not he feels we can win every day with the talent we have.”

Mauer said Monday that he believes that a World Series championship is possible in Minnesota. He pointed to the team having a chance to win two of its three games with the Yankees in this year’s AL Division Series.

“I truly believe once you get to the postseason, you have a chance to win the World Series,” Mauer said.

While Twins fans have already expressed concern over whether the club can keep Mauer in Minnesota, the catcher himself said he isn’t worried about his future contract.

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

Signing Mauer long-term will be expensive, whether he gives the club a hometown discount or not. The Twins will have to figure out a way to sign the catcher and ensure that they can keep placing talent around him to keep the club competitive.

There have been projections that Mauer could be in line for a contract where his salary averages close to $20 million a season. For teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, who appear to be thin in the catching department, that’s not such an anomaly. For the Twins, whose Opening Day payroll in 2008 was around $65 million, that’s a sum they haven’t yet spent on one single player, although the club’s revenue is expected to increase now that their Metrodome tenure is over.

The Twins are getting set to open up their new ballpark in 2010, and the payroll will likely continue to rise. There are estimations that Minnesota’s payroll could reach upwards of $85-90 million in the first season of Target Field and it could rise even higher for 2011.

But whether or not the Twins can afford to keep their two MVPs together with their expensive salaries will be a question mark.

With Mauer expected to see a significant pay increase from the $12.5 million he’s in line to make in 2010 and Morneau set to earn $14 million over each of the next four seasons, the two MVPs would likely make up a significant chunk of the Twins’ payroll.

The two players would love to see their careers continue together in Minnesota for many years to come. And while the good friends now share something in common by each having won an AL MVP Award, they want to celebrate a different honor together as teammates — a World Series trophy.

“This [MVP] award is great,” Mauer said. “But I think we both have the mentality that we’re looking for other hardware.”

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