Twins getting little bang for their biggest bucks

It's amazing to think that the Twins are just one game under .500 and 3½ games out of the American League wild card heading into Saturday's game when four of their five highest-paid players — Joe Mauer, Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana and Ricky Nolasco — have underperformed so greatly.

Imagine if Santana and Nolasco, who over the term of their contracts are being paid a total of $104 million, were pitching like they were with their previous clubs, the Twins would not only lead the wild card but also have a chance at the division title.

Also, considering Mauer, Hughes, Santana and Nolasco are being paid a combined $57.7 million this season, which is around 55 percent of the team's total payroll, you have to believe the Twins front office was expecting a lot more production from their highest-paid players.

Hughes, who went on the disabled list this past week, has given up more hits and home runs than any pitcher in the American League and his 4.49 ERA is a far cry from last season's tremendous 16-10 record and 3.52 ERA. The worrying part for the Twins is that this season looks more like the Hughes who pitched for the Yankees and posted a 4.53 ERA and gave up more than 20 homers in a season three times from 2007 to '13.

Nolasco, though, is an even worse situation — and he might be the worst contract the Twins have ever signed. His four-year, $49 million deal doesn't expire until 2017 and in the two years he has been here he has pitched only 191⅔ innings and has a 5.40 ERA after giving up only 247 hits and 48 walks over that time.

Nolasco's track record before coming to the Twins wasn't stellar; he had a career 4.37 ERA in eight years in the National League, but his 2013 season, when he posted a combined 3.70 ERA over 199⅓ innings with 165 strikeouts between stints with the Marlins and the Dodgers, encouraged the Twins enough to make him their highest-paid free agent ever.

Of course, Nolasco's record contract was broken when the Twins signed Santana to his four-year, $55 million deal this past offseason. Santana's performance issues began before the season even started when he was suspended for 82 games after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and since he has come back the performance hasn't been great.

Now that both Hughes and Nolasco are on the disabled list, and Nolasco's season appears to be over, there's no doubt that Santana is going to have to become at least the pitcher he was over the past two seasons if the Twins are going to have any chance to stay in contention.

Mauer's season has had tremendous ups and downs, but he entered Saturday at the worst batting average of his career at .269, though his eight home runs and 51 RBI totals make it look like he will improve drastically over last season in that department, when he hit .277 with just 55 RBI and four homers all year.

Mauer's eight-year, $184 million deal makes him the 11th-highest paid player in baseball. But over the past two seasons at first base, Mauer simply hasn't been himself, hitting .273 over that time with 102 walks and 171 strikeouts.

Who knows if he can ever become the player he was before he suffered some bad concussion injuries that set him back, but it's possible to imagine that his days of hitting No. 3 in the order won't last very much longer if he can't turn it around.

But maybe a miracle can still happen and Santana and Nolasco can regain their top form before the end of the season and still be of some help to the club.

The Twins had enough faith in Hicks that they traded away Denard Span and Ben Revere after the 2012 season and handed him the center field position. But Hicks struggled mightily and hit only .201 over the past two years.

He played in 28 games this season before getting hurt and sent to Class AAA Rochester, and in that time he hit .247 with one homer, two RBI and nine runs scored.

But since being recalled in July, Hicks has been amazing. Over 36 games he hit .311 with six homers, 22 RBI, 23 runs scored and 12 walks compared to 21 strikeouts. He also had five doubles and two triples in that time and has seemed to put his more difficult seasons behind him.

Hicks was a career .275 hitter with a .379 on-base percentage in the minor leagues, and the Twins always hoped he would find a way to translate that to the major leagues. After eight seasons of waiting, it has finally happened. And talking about salaries, at $408,060 Hicks is the Twins lowest-paid outfielder.

Jottings