It’s never been better to be Joe Mauer.

Well, the life of the Minnesota Twins catcher has likely always been pretty good. But his image on the national level continues to get a boost. He graced the cover of ESPN The Magazine last week as America’s fan-friendliest athlete. And in a few weeks, he’ll be on the cover of MLB The Show video game.

But Twins fans want to know what’s going on with a contract extension for the St. Paul native.

Surprising how quiet it’s been regarding that. His contract expires after the season, and if you do a Google news search of "Joe Mauer" you won’t find much by way of contract chatter.

David Shama writes on his blog that Joe’s grandfather Jake says a deal will be struck before spring training. His grandpa even said if the Twins went $15 million per year for 10 years that Joe would stay because he wants to remain with the organization that much.

It seems everybody – and I really mean "everybody" – thinks this deal will get done. But you start to wonder - with pitchers and catchers reporting to Fort Myers, Fla., in about a week – when an extension will be finished. Would the Twins and Mauer really let this linger into spring training or into the regular season? I doubt it.

But the silence right now is a little ominous.