MLB

Twins’ Mauer knows LeBron’s dilemma

Joe Mauer understands the decision NBA star LeBron James will have to make over the next few months — the Twins catcher made a similar choice earlier this year.

Mauer decided to stay with his hometown Twins, passing up free agency by signing an eight-year, $184 million extension with Minnesota this spring — months before he would have hit the open market at season’s end.

Now, Mauer is rooting for James, who will be a free agent July 1, to stay with his home-state Cavaliers. Why? Because he likes when players stick with their original team.

BOX SCORE

PHOTOS: A-ROD’S GRAND SLAM

“I’d like to see him stay in one uniform,” Mauer told The Post before the Yankees’ 8-4 win over the Twins last night. “There’s something that I appreciate when athletes stay in one place and you see one jersey and one number and you recognize a player with that.

“But you’ve got to do what’s best for him, and I hope he’s happy whatever turns out.”

Mauer continued to rip the ball last night, going 3-for-4 with a solo home run and an RBI single that tied the score at 3-3 in the seventh inning. Mauer came around to score the go-ahead run before Alex Rodriguez gave the Yankees the lead for good with his seventh-inning grand slam.

Though Mauer first answered “every case is different,” when asked about James, the two athletes’ careers have remarkable parallels.

Both were drafted out of high school by teams in their home states. They were selected first overall in their leagues’ drafts. Both have played for relatively small-market Midwest teams, and they have reached the playoffs but won no titles.

They are bout the same age: Mauer just turned 27, James turns 26 in December. And both are reigning MVPs and among their sports’ best players.

Mauer’s agent, Ron Shapiro, told The Post that had his client chosen to hit the market, “I believe that he probably could have made at least another 30 or 40 million dollars.”

Mauer, who marveled over the attention James’ free agency already has drawn, said he had been “curious” about playing on a bigger stage or earning more money. But he said that he chose to re-sign with the Twins because “ultimately this is what I wanted to do and this is where I wanted to be.”

“For me, winning obviously is important. And being at home was important to me too,” the St. Paul, Minn., native said. “[James will] have a lot of time to figure [it] out.”

mark.hale@nypost.com