Joe Mauer Makes His First Hall of Fame Entrance

[Ted Schwerzler]

This weekend the Minnesota Twins are inducting legendary catcher, and hometown native, Joe Mauer, into their Hall of Fame. It’s the first stop on his Hall of Fame tour, and the hope should be that an eventual trip to Cooperstown is made as well.

 

Image courtesy of David Berding-USA TODAY Sports

Joe Mauer retired following the 2018 Major League Baseball season. Less than a year later, constituents were gathered at Target Field where the Minnesota Twins were retiring the number “7” forever. That move, to make sure no one would ever wear Mauer’s number again, serves as a much greater reminder of who Mauer was on the field.

On Saturday, Mauer will join 37 other members of Minnesota’s Hall of Fame. The group includes broadcasters, players, and executives. Mauer’s enshrinement is a straightforward one, as he was among the best to ever wear a Twins jersey. What is neat about the timing is that Minnesota is bringing Mauer into their Hall of Fame during the same yearly cycle that he will be on the ballot for Cooperstown.

When the BBWAA gets their official ballots for the next voting cycle, Mauer’s name will be listed along with Adrian Beltre, David Wright, Chase Utley, and even former Twins teammates Denard Span and Bartolo Colon. Many of the first-year players don’t have much of a hope to see a bronze plaque in Cooperstown, but like Beltre, Mauer should go in on his first ballot.

Although Mauer’s case for enshrinement in Cooperstown has been debated by plenty of analysts across baseball, he seems more likely than not to get in. His career was stunted by injury, but Mauer was one of the best offensive catchers of all-time, and has three batting titles to show for it. He won an MVP, and nearly became the third player ever (joining Placido Polanco and Darin Erstad) to win Gold Glove awards at multiple positions.

Playing in just shy of 1,900 career games, Mauer doesn’t have many of the counting stats typically aligned with automatic induction into The Hall. He is well short of 3,000 hits, topping out at 2,123, and hit just 143 career homers. To boil his career down to those statistics is doing a disservice however.

Not only was Mauer a career .306 hitter with a 124 OPS+, but he played incredible defense behind the plate. As a catcher, Mauer’s 53.0 fWAR ranks 15th all-time. He’s just over two-points behind Yadier Molina, who is seen as a surefire first ballot guy despite producing so little offensively. With Molina having just retired in 2022, he won’t be eligible for balloting until 2027, and while it may be cool for the catchers to go in together, it would be sad to see Mauer wait that long.

Back when Mauer hung up his cleats, doing so with one of the greatest moments Target Field has ever seen, baseball writer Jay Jaffe put together a piece outlining his credentials. Jaffe has long been a master of Cooperstown worthiness, and his closing statement regarding Mauer’s candidacy summed things up well. “Mauer nor Utley is a slam-dunk Hall of Famer, but both should benefit from the increasingly mainstream usage of advanced statistics in baseball coverage and from an evolving electorate that will soon include members from sabermetric sites…here’s hoping this pair will be part of Cooperstown’s Class of 2024.”

We’re still many months away from seeing how the Hall of Fame vote will shake out, and you can bet @NotMrTibbs and his tracker team will keep us updated throughout the process. What seems fairly certain to think on though, is that this weekend’s Twins Hall of Fame ceremony won’t be the last of its kind for Mauer.

Fans were given plenty of moments to smile upon throughout Mauer’s playing career, and the first of his retirement tour was in putting his jersey off limits. The Hall of Fame represents another stop, and Cooperstown after that. Maybe someday Target Field Plaza will put a statue up for him as well, and we’ll continue to see the man that was among the greatest catchers in baseball history get his due.

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[Karbo]

He had to be maybe the best hitting catcher of all time, certainly of his time. One of the best to wear a Twins uniform.

[strumdatjag]

Deserves to be in Cooperstown, better if it’s first ballot.  I split a season ticket and unfortunately will not be at Saturday’s Joe Mauer induction -  Instead, I’m there for Harry Potter night.    OK - I like JK Rowling’s first series of stories but really! It’s an English thing - It’s more appropriate for Harry to promote Cricket 

(or Quidditch) 

[Twins fan since 1961]

First ballot HOF.  His 3 batting titles and MVP speak for themselves.  If they place a statue of him at Target Field, should he be swinging a bat or wearing his catcher's gear?

[BobAzar]

1 hour ago, Twins fan since 1961 said:

First ballot HOF.  His 3 batting titles and MVP speak for themselves.  If they place a statue of him at Target Field, should he be swinging a bat or wearing his catcher's gear?

It should be of his catch around/behind the net at TF. like the bobblehead they made.

but seriously, I think it should be his last game, when he came out in the catchers gear and saluted the crowd. 

[2wins87]

3 hours ago, Twins fan since 1961 said:

First ballot HOF.  His 3 batting titles and MVP speak for themselves.  If they place a statue of him at Target Field, should he be swinging a bat or wearing his catcher's gear?

Silently shaking his head slightly and walking back to the plate after Phil Cuzzi rules his double a foul ball.

[DJL44]

It is very unlikely Mauer gets elected on the first ballot. Catchers very rarely get elected on the first ballot. Piazza and Berra didn't get elected on the first ballot. I think the whole list of first ballot catchers is Johnny Bench and Pudge Rodriguez.

[DJL44]

Quote

nearly became the third player ever

Which is the same as not doing it. That's a not-accomplishment.

[D. Hocking]

I am going to out on a limb and predict his speech will not contain any reference to how his wife fills out a T-shirt.

The recent Trib interview was nice.  I remember him saying once, he felt he missed a lot of his daughters first few years.  He seems pretty determined to be there now.  His celebrating his 40th birthday at the kid's end of school pizza party and his coaching goal is for kids to have fun and want to return and play the next year seemed pretty classic Mauer.

 

 

[Blyleven2011]

High praise for Mauer  , congratulations Joe on Twins hall of fame induction ...

However I don't think he will be a first ballot honoree in the HOF voting  , it will take a few years to climb the ladder  ...

He was a good hitting catcher with 3 batting titles,  gold glove catcher and mvp for his career , but the injuries  , bi lateral leg thing and concussions  hurt his career numbers , first basemen  he should have won 1 gold glove but thats the way it goes ... 

If he had the personality and leadership that Puckett had for the game  , he would be a no doubt  first ballot honoree ....

That's my story and I'm sticking to it ....

[Teflon]

As a Minnesotan, I think Mauer's a first ballot Hall of Famer - but as a Minnesotan, I also know things hardly ever go like that for us. Harmon Killebrew, for #@!$'s sake, took 4 ballots to make it and he was the number 5 all-time HR hitter when he became eligible.

[arby58]

4 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

He was a good hitting catcher with 3 batting titles,  gold glove catcher and mvp for his career , but the injuries  , bi lateral leg thing and concussions  hurt his career numbers

Well, that is a start at his stat line; he won 3 gold gloves as a catcher, 5 silver sluggers, 6-time all star, and besides his MVP year, he also finished 4th and 6th in the balloting in two other years.