HOF today. This from the Athletic.
Mauer’s Hall of Fame case
Once upon a time, a little over two decades ago, Joe Mauer was the first pick in the 2001 MLB Draft. That place atop the draft has rarely turned out to be a ticket to Cooperstown. But it all worked out perfectly for this man, because he was one of the greatest No. 1 picks ever.
In fact, you won’t find any No. 1 pick with a story like Mauer’s: Grew up in Minnesota. … Drafted No. 1 in Minnesota. … Never played a single game in his career for a team other than Minnesota. … And he and Chipper Jones are the only No. 1 overall picks in history to spend their whole careers with the team that drafted them, while playing at least 500 games in the big leagues.
But after draft day, Joe Mauer took it from there. He won three batting titles — one more than all the other No. 1 picks in history combined — and more than any catcher in American League/National League history.
What made Mauer’s case so tricky, however, was the series of concussions that forced him to stop catching and divided his career into two distinct periods.
Like Ernie Banks at shortstop, Mauer spent the first half of his career as a historically great offensive player at a defense-first position (catcher). But in the second half of his career, he was a first baseman with waning power at a bat-first position, again like Banks.
So there were questions about whether voters would look at Mauer’s 10 seasons as a catcher and weigh them more heavily than those years at first base. On election day, those voters gave us their verdict: As a catcher, this man was a clearcut Hall of Famer. Here’s why:
He was one of the best hitting catchers ever — Name any other catcher who had a 10-year stretch like Mauer’s 2004-13 peak, with three batting titles and a .323/.405/.469/.873 slash line. Don’t rack your brain for another because only one catcher ever had a peak like that: Joseph P. Mauer
He was the best catcher of his generation — But think beyond the bat. Let’s look at wins above replacement, because that measures everything. And where did Mauer rank in Baseball Reference WAR in his 10 seasons as his team’s primary catcher, compared with all the other catchers who were active in all 10 of those seasons? No one was even close.
Joe Mauer — 44.6
Victor Martinez — 28.1
Yadier Molina — 27.6
Jorge Posada — 20.0
So of course Mauer will be in Cooperstown on Induction Weekend. But he has been there before — two years ago, in fact, for the induction of two other Twins greats: Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat. So trying to comprehend that this time, he’s the one in the spotlight, has been overwhelming, he said in a Zoom news conference last week.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of emotions going,” he said. “And that’s OK, right? It’s an unbelievable honor, and I’m just so thrilled, excited, nervous. I mean, there’s a lot of emotions leading up to this day.”
Mauer’s path to election
We went into this election in January with questions about whether Mauer would attract enough votes to get elected on his first try. Instead, he came out of that balloting with the second-highest first-ballot vote percentage of any catcher in history. Who knew!
Here’s that leaderboard:
96.4
Johnny Bench, 1989
76.1
Joe Mauer, 2024
76.0
Pudge Rodriguez, 2017
In other words, Mauer got more votes in his first year on the ballot than Yogi Berra. And you can be sure that’s not a commentary on Berra. It’s a commentary on how bizarre voting has always been for guys who wore masks and shinguards for a living.
If you don’t count the designated hitter, a position that has existed for only a half-century, no position had accumulated fewer first-ballot Hall of Famers than catcher … until Joe Mauer came along.
great article dutchy!!!!!!
