Call to the pen
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Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer is among top five players in franchise history

By Bobby Mueller

MINNEAPOLIS, MN- SEPTEMBER 30: Joe Mauer #7 of the Minnesota Twins looks on and acknowledges the fans after catching against the Chicago White Sox on September 30, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the White Sox 5-4. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN- SEPTEMBER 30: Joe Mauer #7 of the Minnesota Twins looks on and acknowledges the fans after catching against the Chicago White Sox on September 30, 2018 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the White Sox 5-4. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) /

Minnesota Twins icon Joe Mauer retired recently and will take his place among the top five players in franchise history.

If there was ever a player who seemed destined to play for a single MLB franchise his entire career, it was Joe Mauer. He was born in St. Paul, excelled in three sports at St. Paul’s Cretin-Derham Hall High School, which included being selected as the USA Today High School Player of the Year in baseball and football. Then he was drafted with the first overall pick by the Minnesota Twins in the 2001 June Amateur Draft.

Mauer quickly became the sideburned face of the Twins and the best catcher in baseball. He led the league in batting average three times in his first five full seasons. In 2009, he was the AL MVP. You couldn’t think of the Minnesota Twins without thinking of Joe Mauer. He was a Minnesotan through and through.

Following his ninth major league season, Mauer married Maddie Bisanz, who was, fittingly, a fellow graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall High School and a nurse in St. Paul. In 2012, they bought a house in Sunfish Lake, Minnesota and a year later welcomed twin daughters into their Minnesota world. If 12-year-old Joe Mauer sat down one day and wrote the story of how he would like his life to play out, he probably couldn’t have written a better story than the one he actually lived.

Joe Mauer’s 15-year career with the Minnesota Twins came to an end with his retirement announcement on Friday. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. Mauer’s eight-year contract with the Twins ended with the 2018 season. He was a free agent, but where else but Minnesota could he play? His final game was a lovefest with the fans and included one last stint behind the plate, a position he hadn’t played since 2013 because of concussion problems.

Concussions played a primary role in Mauer’s retirement at the age of 35 after having a season in which he was nearly league average as a hitter. In his retirement letter to Minnesota Twins fans, he wrote, “After my concussion this season I found myself wondering about ‘what if’ situations. If I were to continue playing this game I would want to do so without reservation and I no longer feel that is possible. There is a part of me that will always want to compete, but I have reached a point where my desire to play is outweighed by the possibility of another injury.”

With Mauer’s retirement, I thought it would be nice to look back at some of the other all-time greats in Minnesota Twins history and see where Mauer lands on the team’s Mount Rushmore (plus one). I should note that you won’t find any Washington Senators here.

With apologies to Walter Johnson and Joe Judge, this is Minnesota’s time to shine. Well, that’s not entirely true. One player did spend the first part of his career with the Senators before becoming a Twin. He’s the exception that proves the rule. Here are my picks for the top five players in the history of the Minnesota Twins.

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