7 best moments from Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame career

No. 1: Joe Mauer wins AL MVP (and a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove and an All-Star appearance), 2009

2009 was the year of Mauer. He finished the season with an unbelievable slash line of .365/.444/.587, with career-highs of 28 home runs, 96 RBI, and 191 hits. His batting average and OBP that year still mark the highest single-season totals ever achieved by a catcher. Unsurprisingly, this earned him an All-Star appearance, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger, and he was named AL MVP almost unanimously (Miguel Cabrera received one first-place vote that year).

That year was sandwiched between two more All-Star, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, MVP vote-getting seasons in 2008 and 2010, and it came just a few years after an outstanding 2006, when he hit .347/.429/.507, was an All-Star, placed sixth in MVP voting, and earned a Silver Slugger.

He was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2023, and it just makes sense that he'll also go into Cooperstown this year, joining Beltré as the newest members of the first-ballot club, an even more exclusive sect inside an already exclusive group. Mauer will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame during Hall of Fame Weekend from July 19-22.

- Stebbins

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