Matt Slocum/AP

The January or even February date that Prince Fielder finally signs a new contract will be a forgotten footnote long before the presumed multi-year deal expires.

Soon after he picks a new team, Fielder will report to spring training, answer a few questions about what he was doing during the long wait (probably some combination of vacationing and working out, just like every other ballplayer) and about what took so long to decide (it was a developing market and required an ownership-level decision, as his agent, Scott Boras, might say).

Fielder will then return to playing games and all that will matter is how he plays from April to September and especially October in each of the next six, seven, eight or nine years of his new contract. What happened in the winter of 2012 will stay in the winter of 2012.

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Related Topics: mlb, Texas Rangers, prince fielder