12 Days of Twinsmas: #4 Joe Mauer

If you don’t know who I’m talking about by now, it’s Joe Mauer. Other than my parents, there is nobody I idolized more growing up than Joe. Joe Mauer was an extremely talented hitter and it was evident from the moment he put on a Twins uniform that he would do great things for the Twins organization.

Young Prodigy
When Mauer was four years old, he was asked to leave his youth tee-ball league because he hit the ball too hard for the other kids. When he was in high school, he might have been the best athlete in the entire country.

A three-sport athlete at Cretin-Derham Hall, Mauer excelled in all three sports. In baseball, he hit a remarkable .605, hit a home run in seven consecutive games, and only struck out once in his entire career. In football, he threw for 5,528 yards and 73 touchdowns over a two-year career, being named National Gatorade Player of the Year his senior year. He had a verbal commitment to play college football for Bobby Bowden at Florida State had he not been drafted by the Twins. 247 Sports ranked him as the 17th best football player in the country, ahead of Frank Gore and Larry Fitzgerald. In basketball, he averaged 20 points per game and was named All-State his junior and senior years.

Meteoric Rise
In the 2001 draft, Mauer was selected first overall by his hometown Twins. He started in rookie ball the summer of 2001 and dominated, hitting .400/.492/.491 in 32 games there. In 2002, he played in A ball with the Quad Cities River Bandits and continued to perform well, hitting .302 with a .785 OPS while walking more than he struck out as a 19 year old. In 2003, Mauer split time between high A ball and AA, and combined to hit .338/.398/.434 with 30 doubles. This accumulation of great performance earned Mauer the #1 prospect ranking in all of baseball heading into the 2004 season. Because of Mauer’s readiness for the big leagues, the Twins traded their starting catcher, AJ Pierzynski, to the San Francisco Giants for Boof Bonser, Joe Nathan, and Francisco Liriano. 

In 2004, Mauer started out hot before suffering a sprained left knee. He returned in June of that year and appeared in 35 games, hitting .308/.369/.570 with six home runs. In 2005, Mauer was able to stay healthy and played 131 games, hitting .294/.372/.411 while also throwing out 43 percent of base stealers (league average was 30 percent) for a 3.4 WAR season. It was clear that Mauer and his beautiful swing were close to breaking out and he was already a major contributor for the Twins.

Prime Years
2006 was the year Mauer took a big step forward. He started off the season hitting an absurd .378/.446/.535 with 40 extra base hits and a 157 wRC+ before the all-star break. He was named the starting catcher in the all-star game for the first time in his career. Mauer finished that season as the batting champion, hitting .347/.429/.507 with 13 home runs and 84 RBI while accumulating 5.8 fWAR. He was named the AL Silver Slugger at the catcher position and finished 6th in MVP voting while teammate Justin Morneau won it. Mauer led the Twins to a 96-66 finish and a division title.

In 2007 Mauer took a minor step backwards, only hitting .293/.382/.426 (.808). He had his best defensive season yet, posting 7 Defensive Runs Saved. In 2008, Mauer won the AL batting crown again, hitting .328/.413/.451 while winning his first Gold Glove and his second Silver Slugger. He was once again named an all-star and finished 4th in MVP voting while posting a 6.4 WAR.

MVP
In 2009, Mauer missed the first month of the season due to a back injury. He made his season debut on May 1st and hit a home run in his first at bat. That was only the start of a historic season. Through his first 185 plate appearances, Mauer was hitting an otherworldly .429/.497/.756 with a 225 wRC+ (125 percent above league average). He was named AL Player of the Month in May. He was named an all-star and finished the season hitting .365/.444/.587 (1.031) with 28 home runs. He led the American League in batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, wRC+ (170), and was second in fWAR (8.4). He won the AL MVP and received 27 of 28 first place votes. This was the second best season in Twins history in terms of WAR only behind Rod Carew’s 1977 MVP year. He also won his third silver slugger and his second gold glove.

Go Get Paid
On March 21, 2010, Mauer was given a large 8 year, $184 million extension. This was the biggest contract in Twins history and remains the biggest. In the 2010 season, Mauer continued his excellence, hitting .327/.402/.469 (.871) with 43 doubles and nine home runs in the Twins first year at Target Field. He was worth 5.7 WAR and led the Twins to another division title. He won his fourth silver slugger and third gold glove.

In 2011 and 2012, the Twins were terrible, averaging 64.5 wins. Mauer however was a bright spot, hitting .308/.397/.419 (.816) with an average of 3.3 WAR. 2013 was more of the same, but Mauer started off great. Then August 19th came along. On August 19, 2013, Mauer took a foul tip off the mask and suffered a concussion. He hit .324/.404/.476 (.880) with a 143 wRC+ and won his fifth silver slugger while being named to his sixth all star game. But he was never the same after the concussion.

Mauer’s concussion greatly affected his vision, and his stats can back it up.
Pre-Concussion (2004-8/19/2013): (.323/.405/.468) .873 OPS, 134 wRC+, 12.2 BB%, 11.1 K%
Post-Concussion: (8/20/2013-2018): (.278/.359/.388) .747 OPS, 103 wRC+, 11.1 BB%, 16.2 K%

First Baseman
In 2014, the Twins announced they were going to make Joe Mauer into their full-time first baseman because of his concussion risk and they thought he would be able to stay in the lineup more if he played first base. They were right, as he averaged 136 games played from 2014 to 2018. However, he was a shell of his former self, only accumulating 6.4 WAR in those five seasons. He went from being 34 percent better at hitting than league average while excelling at a premium defensive position to only being 3 percent above league average while playing first base, not a premium position.

Final Goodbye
In 2018, there had been ramblings about Mauer potentially retiring at the end of the season, as his contract was due to expire. In his final game against the White Sox, he had quite the final send-off. In his final at bat as a Twin, he got to a full count and hit a hard line drive into the left-center gap for a double. Mauer always used the whole field so it was fitting that his final at bat was a hard hit double the other way.

In the ninth inning, there was a slight delay in starting the inning, and there was no catcher behind home plate. Mauer emerged from the tunnel in catcher’s gear, and the stadium gave him a standing ovation. Mauer caught just one pitch before getting pulled for Chris Herrmann, and got yet another lengthy ovation from the home faithful. This was Mauer’s first time catching since 2013 so it was a very emotional moment. A month later, Mauer penned a retirement letter to Twins Territory, citing health reasons and wanting to be with family as a couple of main reasons for retirement.

Conclusion
Joe Mauer was a fan favorite for many years. Seeing an athlete play for his hometown team, dominate, and do it all with class made Mauer one of the most likable athletes in Minnesota history. Mauer had five seasons of 5+ WAR in his career. Only three catchers in MLB history have more. These catchers are Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, and Gary Carter.

Mauer finished his career with 52.5 WAR (3rd in team history), 2,123 hits (2nd), 428 doubles (1st), 1,018 runs (3rd), 923 RBI (5th), 939 walks (2nd), and 143 home runs (12th).

A personal note - Joe Mauer is my favorite athlete of all-time. Right when I started playing sports as a kid, Mauer was in the midst of his prime and he was very fun for me to watch. A couple years for his birthday, I sent him a letter and he responded. This made me into a fan of his for life.

Mauer was a fantastic player but an even better person and this makes him the fourth best Twin of all time and eventually, a Hall of Famer.

Stay tuned for the tenth day of Twinsmas!

Thank you for reading, and Go Twins!

Read Previous "12 Days of TwinsMas" articles here:
#12 - Torii Hunter
#11 - Chuck Knoblauch
#10 - Jim Kaat
#9 - Frank Viola
#8 - Kent Hrbek
#7 - Tony Oliva
#6 - Johan Santana
#5 - Bert Blyleven
#4 - Joe Mauer
#3 - Coming Soon!