MINNEAPOLIS -- After a slow start to the offseason, the Twins started to make some noise in the past month when it came to filling some of the team's holes.

But there's no question that the most important deals of this offseason for the Twins have yet to be finished.

The club still hasn't hammered out contracts with any of its six arbitration-eligible players. Twins general manager Terry Ryan wouldn't go into detail as to how close any of the deals are to getting done, but he said that the team is continuing to work on negotiations.

"It's ongoing and it's been ongoing for a number of weeks and months now," Ryan said. "It's the nature of this time of the year. Contracts are a part of this business and a sensitive part of the business. When players go out and have years of the quality that many of the guys did, they are going to be rewarded. Now, it's just a matter of how much [money] and how many years.

The players eligible for arbitration include Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Nick Punto, Juan Rincon and Lew Ford. Earlier this offseason, Ryan clearly expressed his interest in working out multiyear deals with at least three of those players -- Morneau, Mauer and Cuddyer.

All three players have said that they have interest in working out deals, and so far, it seems that the option of the multiyear deal has not been erased in any of the cases.

"Right now, everything is still on the table," Morneau said of negotiations involving his contract. "We're talking, they're talking and we're still trying to figure it all out. There are a lot of guys in it right now, and everybody is trying to get a deal done. It's one of those situations where the team is trying to do what's right for the team and the player wants what's right for the player. Hopefully, we'll get it done."

With the large numbers (as much as $1.25 million) separating the two sides in many of the cases, it's looking like it could come down to the wire for deals to be hammered out. Arbitration hearings are scheduled to start on Feb. 1, but the big three cases for the Twins aren't likely to take place until at least the second week of the month.

There are many layers that figure into how a club structures multiyear deals, and for the Twins, the battle to keep the entire group intact will include some challenges. Besides just working on deals for the players currently up for arbitration, the team also has to factor in some other important players, such as Joe Nathan and Johan Santana, whose contracts will be up within the next two years.

"I'm well aware of where people are as far as their status and years of service, but that's something for down the line," Ryan said of working on other deals. "I have all I can handle this week and this spring. We've always got concerns about that type of thing, but right now, it's not our main concern."

As for the future of the team's "Big Three," there is hope by many of them that something can be worked out so that they can be playing together for a good part of the near future.

"If we can keep this group together for a number of years, I think that's what everybody wants," Mauer said. "We're a young group, and if we stay together, I think all we can do is get better."

Reflecting back: One thing that TwinsFest has done this year is provide Mauer with an opportunity to let the impact of his American League batting title sink in.

Despite having much of the offseason to look back on the momentous achievement of becoming the first AL catcher to accomplish the feat, Mauer said that it never truly hit him until this weekend.

"Just signing autographs and seeing these pictures that say the first ever, that kind of blows me away a little bit," Mauer said. "I realized how tough it is just to win a batting title and then on top of it, for a guy in my position to win it. I just remember that last day and how relieved I was that it was all over, win or lose. But to win it makes it that much sweeter. It really was a pretty crazy year."

Despite having accomplished the feat, though, Mauer said that he's spent more of his offseason thinking about how the team itself as a whole finished rather than all of the personal accolades.

"It's been kind of a bittersweet taste that I've had this offseason," Mauer said. "I don't think we could have had a better regular season, but the way we exited in the playoffs is what has made it bitter. That has been kind of driving me this winter. Playing baseball is enough of a drive, but now after having a little taste of what it's like to be in the playoffs, it's all about really getting after it to find our way back there."

A whole new territory: The Twins have long called their fan base "Twins Territory," but now the organization is trying to extend its reach from beyond the Upper Midwest.

On Friday, the Twins launched their official team fan club, the Twins Territory Team. It is only the third official team fan club in Major League Baseball.

Benefits of being a member of the Twins Territory team include a complimentary 2007 subscription to MLB.com's Gameday Audio, 2007 Twins ticket discounts, a 15 percent discount on selected items at Twins Pro Shops as well as access to live Web chats with members of the Twins organization.

Twins tidbits: The Twins have seen their season-ticket sales rise this year, as they expect to sell more than 10,000 season tickets for only the second time in franchise history, according to Twins president Dave St. Peter. As of Friday morning, the team had already sold 2,100 season-ticket packages -- more than double what was sold at the same time last year.