He's a man with an eight-year, $184 million contract. And if you're calculating along at home, trying to figure out what's left of Joe Mauer's historic deal with the Minnesota Twins, we can sum it up succinctly for you:Which means it's time to ask a delicate question that the folks in the Twins' hierarchy enjoy tackling about as much as they enjoy 117-inch snowfalls on Opening Day:How long can Joe Mauer catch?We don't ask that question today just because the best catcher in baseball is currently sentenced to the disabled list with an ailment described as "bilateral leg weakness."And we don't ask it just because Mauer is still recuperating from his second knee surgery, or because he needed three injections of synthetic lubricant in his left knee this spring.We ask it because baseball is a better sport when Mauer is out there chasing another batting title, as opposed to chasing another opinion from an orthopedic surgeon.
MLB Minnesota Twins Jerseys And we ask it because it's a question we've been thinking about since the day Mauer signed t
hat contract -- the biggest by a catcher in baseball history, not to mention the biggest signed by any player in history who isn't playing on the left side of the Yankees' infield.
So, just a few weeks ago, before that term "bilateral leg weakness" came out of anyone's mouth, we sat in the office of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and posed that very question.It isn't exactly the manager's most beloved topic. But it's one he clearly has thought about -- and continues to think about."He's said that's what he wanted to do," Gardenhire said, "to go as a catcher through the length of the contract. So you know what? I'm kind of just playing it year by year, and you just see. If it looks like he has another one of those years where he misses some time because of his knees, then I think we start thinking about it -- at least thinking about it, talking about it and maybe start taking some balls at other places, and at least having a backup plan here if it gets to the point where we need it."But Joe's pretty content at catching. And he's also pretty insistent that he wants to catch the length of this contract. So we'll see whether he can or not. I don't have an answer for you. I just know that catchers take a beating. And he's had leg issues. So that is definitely something you really have to pay attention to."Any time that question comes flying at Mauer himself, however, he blocks it as if he were smothering another splitter in the dirt. He loves to catch. He lives to catch. He plans to catch. So, uh, any more questions?
So if Mauer is physically up to catching, case closed. But what are the odds he'll actually be up to it?"He's a great player, and he's a special hitter," said one scout who covers the Twins. "But I don't see him being able to squat for another eight or nine years. I'll tell you that."But Twins GM Bill Smith says it's too early to assume that."I grew up in New England, watching Carlton Fisk, who was a big catcher who had injuries," Smith said this spring. "He had knee injuries early in his career. And until Pudge Rodriguez came along, Carlton Fisk caught more games than anybody in history."Hey, good point. Just 334 games into his big league career, Fisk suffered what was thought at the time to be a career-threatening knee injury.
Cheap MLB Jerseys Turned out he was all done, all right -- a mere 19 years and 1,899 games caught later."There's too much that happens over the course of a career to look eight years down the road," Smith said of Mauer. "He's one of the best catchers in the game. He's one of the best hitters in the game. He's an All-Star. He's a franchise player. So,
Chanel Shoes, the manager and the coaches will figure out where he plays, when he plays."But if Mauer is going to play someplace else, the manager and the coaches have an Advil attack waiting to happen, trying to solve that particular Rubik's Cube.
How long can Joe Mauer catch
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