FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joe Mauer showed up for Twins pitchers-and-catchers reporting day Sunday, played some catch and declared: “I’ll be a new man tomorrow.”

What’s that? Will he arrive Monday with a contract extension in hand, crushing the remaining slim hopes in New York, Boston and elsewhere that they might get their hands on baseball’s best player next winter?

No, Mauer just meant he was going to shave off the full beard he grew the past three weeks.

As for the contract, well, we’ll see.

It seems an inevitability that Minnesota signs its hometown hero, the defending AL MVP, at some time in 2010. It just makes too much sense. Target Field, set to open in April, gives the Twins a stream of cash — 19,000 season tickets sold so far — which they have used to boost the payroll to more than $90 million (more than the Braves, for example).

Who better to spend the money on than Mauer?

“Hopefully, Joe here gets something done pretty soon,” closer Joe Nathan said.

Or as Cal Ripken Jr. told FanHouse last week, “Looking at the situation from afar … I would think there’s no doubt he’ll end up there for his whole career.”

Twins general manager Bill Smith, through a team spokesman, declined comment on negotiations. Agent Ron Shapiro did not return an email.

I asked Mauer, who turns 27 on April 19, if there is any chance he’s a free agent after this season.

“You know, I’m not going to even get into all that,” he answered. “It’s just going to open a can of worms.

“Nothing’s going to change — that’s the policy we’ve taken: we’re not going to talk about anything like that, or really, anything past this season. We’re focused on 2010.”

If contract negotiations are bothering Mauer, it doesn’t show. And the easiest way to coax a smile was to ask how he feels compared to a year ago, when back problems forced him to miss spring training.

To avoid a repeat, he worked out less last winter, making sure to rest — and recover from a sore hip flexor that bothered him late last season. Mauer didn’t begin swinging a bat until this month.

“I think you learn new things every year,” Mauer said. “If I can take anything from last year, I think maybe I kind of overtrained.

“In past seasons, I think I came into spring game-ready, ready to go. And I realized that it’s a long season and I don’t want to peak too early.” 

Last year’s peak lasted five months. Despite an abbreviated version of spring training, all Mauer did was homer in his first at-bat May 1 and go on lead the league in batting (.365), slugging (.587) and on-base percentage (.444) — the first catcher ever to do so.

Imagine what he can do in 2010 with a full spring?

Or maybe he’s better off with less preparation and more time off; Mauer has dropped not-so-subtle half-joking hints to manager Ron Gardenhire about how well that worked last year.

No matter how much he plays in March, Mauer said his contractual status won’t be a distraction.

“I’m approaching [camp] the same way,” Mauer said. “I’m excited about the season and I’m excited about getting going.”

Step one: lose the beard.

“I’m shaving it off,” Mauer said. “For sure. I was testing it out, seeing if it worked or not.”

He said he grew it while getting away from things at his cabin in Cambridge, Minn., an hour outside Minneapolis.

“We don’t have any razors up there in the North Woods,” he said.

Don’t worry, Joe. When that new contract is done, maybe it will come with a Gillette endorsement deal. At the very least, you can buy a razor or 5,000 for the cabin.