Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Mauer Out
Posted by Aaron GleemanThe Joe Mauer bandwagon has come to a screeching halt. Mauer tore the "left meniscus cartilage" in his knee while chasing a foul ball last night and will likely be out for a minimum of three weeks.
This is one amazingly cruel tease for Twins fans. Mauer started his career hitting .750/.833/.750 in six plate appearances and generally had everyone in Minnesota drooling with excitement.
For the short-term, the injury doesn't kill the Twins, assuming he can come back in a month or so. Matthew LeCroy can move from DH to C and Michael Cuddyer can move from the bench to DH. That is, assuming Ron Gardenhire doesn't start giving Jose Offerman playing time ahead of Cuddyer.
A catcher/DH combo of LeCroy/Cuddyer is not much of an offensive dropoff from Mauer/LeCroy and it actually might be a little better. Defensively, LeCroy is clearly not in Mauer's league.
Maybe Joe Sheehan was right...
Aaron Gleeman is a freelance writer whose work can also be found regularly at AaronGleeman.com, Fox Sports, Rotoworld, and Insider Baseball. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions via e-mail.