Mauer Out

The 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…