Minnesota Twins: Five things that defined Joe Mauer’s career

Mauer was one of the greatest offensive catchers of All-Time

If there was a strength to Mauer’s game, the first thing people would bring up was his excellence in the batter’s box. While some people would have liked to see a little more power, no hitter had a more pure swing than the one Mauer had for the Twins.

Mauer was a master at taking the ball the other way thanks to a compact swing that was focused on making solid contact as opposed to today’s trend of launch angle and other all-or-nothing approaches.

A look at Fangraphs’ spray chart for Mauer from 2012 (the first year Fangraphs started gathering information) to 2018 confirms this as the left field portion of the graph is almost painted in solid red for line drives to the opposite field.

While one of the major critiques of Mauer’s game was a reluctance to pull the ball, you can’t argue with the results. Mauer would compile a .306 batting average during his career and wound up with 428 doubles thanks to his ability to attack the gaps.

This offensive ability was a rarity at the catcher position as no catcher had ever won the American League batting title before Mauer did in 2006. Just for good measure, Mauer would triple down on the feat, collecting two more batting titles in 2008 and 2009 while also winning five Silver Slugger awards while behind the plate.

Could Mauer have put more balls over the fence? Sure. But with numbers like these, it’s hard to argue that Mauer wasn’t one of the greatest hitting catchers in the history of Major League Baseball.

Mauer’s elite defense behind the plate

It’s one thing for a catcher to put up gaudy numbers at the plate, but it’s another to back it up with Gold Glove defense behind it. Mauer was a defensive wizard at catcher despite having a 6’5″, 225-pound frame that many have turned into an outfielder in today’s game.

With the Twins giving Mauer the opportunity to stay behind the plate, he was able to use his rocket arm that was once coveted by Bobby Bowden at Florida State to make opposing baserunners to think twice before swiping a bag. Mauer led the American League twice in caught stealing percentage and even logged a 53% rate back in 2007.

Besides his arm, Mauer displayed athleticism that is rarely seen at the catcher position. This display was seen in one of Mauer’s greatest plays against the New York Yankees in 2009. With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Francisco Cervelli hit a nubber off of Jose Mijares‘ glove. Mauer ran out to get the ball, but Brett Gardner sped around third base and looked to score the game-winning run.

With the game on the line, Mauer sprinted from halfway between first base and home plate and used a full-extension dive to tag out Gardner and keep the game alive.

In other moments, Mauer was simply as cool as they come. During a 2010 game against the Kansas City Royals, Mauer went back to field a pop up in the bottom of the ninth. In a situation that would have been a foul ball at the Metrodome, Mauer calmly went to the edge of the home plate netting, reached around and made the catch for the out.

Plays like these are why Mauer was a six-time Gold Glove winner at catcher and even found himself in the conversation for a seventh after converting to first base later in his career.

Mauer’s 2009 MVP season

Throughout his career, Mauer was a solid player that was a key component at the top of the Twins lineup. Even though he was one of the most productive players on the team for most of the early years of his career, his defining moment came during his MVP season of 2009.

That year started off on the wrong foot for Mauer as he wound up going on the disabled list in spring training with a back injury. Although the prognosis of an inflammation of the right sacroiliac joint didn’t sound promising, Mauer came back and immediately started tearing the cover off the ball.

His opening month of May was one of the best of his career slashing .414/.500/.838 while hitting 11 home runs and knocking in 32 RBI. While Mauer’s power would eventually fade, the hitting didn’t stop as he flirted with .400 through June and wound up setting career highs in average (.365), home runs (28) and RBI (96).

With Mauer leading the way, the Twins pulled off an improbable comeback to catch the Detroit Tigers in the standings and defeat them in one of the most memorable games in franchise history. Although the 2009 season would come short thanks to a bad call in New York by Phil Cuzzi, Mauer put together the best season of his career and came up with his first and only MVP award.

Mauer’s big contract (and the curse that came with it)

After the 2009 campaign, the Twins found themselves in a tough spot with Mauer’s contract. With his massive season, Mauer’s price tag went through the roof and teams such as the Yankees and Boston Red Sox were salivating at his pending free agency following the 2010 season.

With the pressure mounting, the two sides came to an agreement on an eight-year, $184 million extension in March of 2010. The deal ensured that Mauer would spend the rest of his career in a Twins uniform, but also proved to be his biggest curse.

After years of physical demands at the catcher position, Mauer began to pay the toll beginning with the infamous bilateral leg weakness incident in 2011. From there, various ailments would begin to slow Mauer down and a concussion late in the 2013 season would force the Twins to make the decision to move him to first base permanently for the final five years of his career.

In addition, Mauer’s power from the 2009 season never resurfaced as he moved from the hitter-friendly confines of the Metrodome to Target Field. With Mauer continuing to stick to his gameplan as opposed to pulling the ball, he would hit double-digit home runs in just four of the eight seasons of his massive deal and draw plenty of fans wanting more.

While many believe that Mauer wasn’t worth the money the Twins gave him following the MVP season, the reality is that he simply stuck to who he was.

If the Twins didn’t sign Mauer to that contract, Twins fans would have revolted and burned down Target Field while accusing the Pohlad family of being too cheap to sign the face of the franchise. It’s unfortunate that Mauer’s injuries led to a decline in performance, but he was still really good and would have likely thrived had he gone to a better hitting environment such as Boston or New York.

Mauer was a hometown hero

As mentioned in the first slide, Mauer was just a kid playing high school baseball in St. Paul when the Twins drafted him over Mark Prior. Fifteen years later, Mauer is one of the greatest players to put on a Twins uniform and a lot of that has to do with his hometown roots.

Mauer was exactly what this franchise needed coming out of the awful 1990s and into the 2000s. While the team was slated for contraction at one point during his stint in the minor leagues, Mauer came up in 2004 and immediately spawned a new generation of Twins fans.

From video game to ice cream commercials, when people across the country thought of the Minnesota Twins, they thought of Joe Mauer. That’s a distinction that used to belong to the seven players who have already had their number retired by the franchise.

That’s the reason why in a meaningless season finale against the Chicago White Sox last October, the Twins made a major point to give Mauer a proper sendoff, even letting him strap on the catching gear one last time to a standing ovation.

Some may not be the biggest fan of Mauer, but there’s no denying what he means to the franchise which his why his number will be hung up at Target Field and possibly enshrined in Cooperstown in the near future.