FORT MYERS, Fla. - The end of a decorated catching career came without warning, on a Monday afternoon in August, in a makeup game against the Mets at Target Field. Joe Mauer took one foul ball off his mask, and then another the next inning, nothing unusual for his position. He played the rest of the game and flew with his Minnesota Twins teammates to Detroit.
The next day, Mauer felt tired, but it was late in the year, and that, too, seemed normal. Before the game, he took grounders at first base, where he played sometimes to get a break from the rigors of catching. His career would never be the same.
“I couldn’t even stand on my own two feet,” Mauer said. “I had to get off the field, and all the symptoms really started to pour on.”
Mauer missed the final 39 games of the season with a concussion. It was the first he had ever endured, officially, but he believes others had gone undiagnosed. This one caused extreme sensitivity to light and noise. All he wanted, he said, was to be in a dark, quiet room.
It took more than three months to shake the symptoms. As he recovered, the Twins suggested he move permanently to first base.
Mauer resisted. He had played in six All-Star Games as a catcher, earning three batting titles, three Gold Gloves, an American League Most Valuable Player award and a $184 million contract through 2018. Catching was important to his value as a player, and it was integral to his identity as a person.
The Twins gave him time to decide, but no doctor Mauer consulted would tell him what he wanted to hear. In the end, he had no choice.
“Physically, I felt like I could catch a few more years, but if I go back there and take another shot, what I got from the doctors is I’d miss another three months or even more,” Mauer said. “I can’t do that, especially to my family or the organization. I’ve got to be in the lineup. I think we both understand that.”
As a catcher, Mauer provided extraordinary offense at a position not known forit. His .323 career average is the highest among active players with at least 3,000 plate appearances (2 points ahead of Albert Pujols), andhis .405 on-base percentage ranks fifth.
But the games-played statistic was troubling. Mauer has played more than 140 games just twice in 10 years. He has not caught more than 75 games since 2010. Players have no value unless they actually play.
“Here we have an opportunity to have one of the best hitters in the game play, I don’t know, 155 or 162 games, compared to 110 or 120,” said bench coach Terry Steinbach, a former All-Star catcher. “Knowing that, the move is a positive. As a catching coach, it stinks - I’m losing an All-Star in my catching corps - but I understand it. It’s better for Joe and it’s better for the team.”
The Twins have a proud history of first basemen, including Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew, two-time World Series champion Kent Hrbek andJustin Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP. Now Mauer will join their ranks, with another former Twins first baseman as his primary instructor.
“I like to stay I was ousted by Carew,” said Tom Kelly, who hit .181 for the Twins in 1975, his only major league season.
Kelly went on to manage the Twins to their two titles, retiring in 2001. He remembers seeing Mauer play quarterback in a high school game at the Metrodome, showing the athleticism that should help him learn first base.
Mauer has played there 56 times, but he always knew he was a catcher, just trying to make it through a day without crouching. Now Mauer does not even have catching gear at spring training, and he has been Kelly’s project for weeks.
“I don’t know if he’s going to win a Gold Glove or anything like that, but he’s going to be fine,” Kelly said last week. “It’s just him getting settled in his mind. He asked me four or five questions about stuff yesterday. He’s going to have to experience things, and he’ll be better for it. How long that takes, I’m not sure, but he’s very smart. That makes it easy.”
Injuries can happen anywhere - Morneau’s career was never the same after he suffered a concussion on a slide - and first base is no exception. Kelly has emphasized avoiding risky plays like throws that drift into the path of the runner.
He has also helped Mauer on the nuances of first base, how to manage glare, where to position his body for pickoff throws and so on. Mauer said the hardest part had been getting into fielding position after holding a runner.
At 30, Mauer should still be in his prime, and now he has a better chance to get more from it. He has learned to take the long view.
“People always give me a hard time because I don’t put up any of my awards or anything at the house,” he said. “I always say I don’t want to make a nice cabinet for it and say, ‘That’s it.’ I’m going to wait till I’m done playing and hopefully I can add to it. I don’t want to get too content. There’s still a lot of baseball to be played.”
Sports, Pages 29 on 03/23/2014