Minnesota Twins Moved Joe Mauer To First Base A Year Ago Today
A year ago, our world’s changed. For the better? Maybe. The jury is still kind of out.
365 days ago, the Minnesota Twins announced that Joe Mauer would be moved from catcher to first base. The move was polarizing to say the least. I got ripped for saying Mauer would be an overpaid first baseman… Can’t throw that stone at the golden boy, apparently.
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In his first full season at first base, Mauer hit .277/.361/.371 with four home runs, 55 RBI and 27 doubles in 120 games. The end results are some of the lowest in Mauer’s career that now spans a total of 11 MLB seasons.
Joe Mauer is a very good baseball player, there is no denying that. I still think that the jury can be out if the idea of moving Mauer from behind the plate was a good one. I’ll buy the transition period Kool-Aid that seems to be being sold.
On the face of the move, Mauer was moved from catcher to first base to make sure the star was on the field more and faced lesser injury. That did not happen.
Mauer played only seven more games in 2014 than 2013. Only in 2007 and 2011 did Mauer play in less games than Mauer did this past season for the Twins.
An article appeared on this website two-thirds of the way through the 2014 season analyzing if the Mauer move was a good move. The sentiment still rings true: Mauer can have a big bounce back year in 2015, if he’s on the field.
One more season, then we can declare the status of the move.
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