Torii Hunter will be back with the Minnesota Twins for at least one more year after the Twins decided to exercise their 2007 option on Hunter’s contract on Tuesday.

The Twins will have to pay a $12 million option to Hunter, which will be the largest single-season sum in team history.

Hunter, the five-time Gold Glove award winner, repeated he wanted to stay with Minnesota longer than one additional year. But if his deal is not extended by the spring, he sounded resigned to leaving as a free agent next year. The player explained that he would have preferred to have Minnesota buy out the final year of his contract for $2 million. He would have been able to negotiate a new deal. But his current contract called for the team to make a decision five days after the conclusion of the season, which was too soon to work something out and forcing them to exercise the option.

Hunter had experienced a stress fracture in his left foot this summer, which hampered his season. He was out for 15 games and this injury kept him from running at full speed. Even though he was not his high performance level on the field this season, he had a great career year with 31 homers and 98 RBI. Hunter is also a leader in the clubhouse and a popular figure in the community. He significantly helped push the Twins to their fourth division title in five seasons. While the Twins were swept by the A’s in the first round of the playoffs losing the second game of that series, Hunter took an ill-advised dive for a sinking line drive that turned into a two-run inside-the-park homer. Hunter blamed himself for the defeat, but his team mates and coaches were quick to defend him.

Despite the rise of this year’s payroll of more than $63 million, the Twins will have potentially eight players eligible for salary arbitration including batting champ Joe Mauer, MVP candidate Justin Morneau and cleanup hitter Michael Cuddyer. Other announcements will soon follow.