Joe Mauer's Move to First Base: Good Idea or Great Idea?

Finally! At only 30 years old, finishing his 10th season in the big leagues, Joe Mauer has already established himself as one of the best catchers to ever play the game. His career .323 Batting Average is the highest any qualified catcher has ever recorded in Major League Baseball, dating back to as early as the 1870s. His .405 career On-Base Percentage and his .873 OPS both rank 3rd all-time among catchers, and let's not forget about his defense. Joe has won 3 Gold Gloves behind the plate, and his career .9951 Fielding Percentage ranks 4th all-time among big league catchers. The 6 time All Star and 2009 AL MVP, is also the only catcher in history to win 3 batting titles! There is simply no denying Mauer's greatness behind the plate, but there's also no denying the truth. And honestly, the time for Joe's move from his life-long position has come. Joe has missed more than 15 games in every single one of his 10 seasons in the league do to injury or simple rest, and has recently spent 2 long stints on the DL in 2011 and 2013 due to knee and concussion issues. The idea of a modern day catcher playing the position day in and day out for a 15+ year career is just no longer practical, and the Twins have desperately missed Joe's bat in the lineup, specifically over the last 3 seasons. Nobody can take away from what Joe did behind the plate in 10 years; he was simply amazing as a catcher. But, I think he'll be even better as a First Basemen.

Joe Mauer is a competitor and obviously wanted to continue "doing his thing" behind the plate. But, he is also unselfish and realistic. The most important thing that I read today concerning the move was that it was partly Joe's decision, and one that he made after visits with medical professionals at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. Moving to a new position takes an enormous amount of physical stress off of Joe and his legs, and could add several years and hundreds of plate appearances to his career. This is obviously in the best interest of Joe's future and the future of the Minnesota Twins. 

The move makes absolute perfect sense to Minnesota for 3 major reasons.

Reason One: the Twins' current void at first base. I apologize for quoting Moneyball again, but "Guys! Right now if a ground ball is hit to first, nobody's gonna be there to stop it from rolling!" How to replace Justin Morneau was one of the biggest offseason questions in the Minnesota clubhouse, moving towards 2014. Moving Mauer to first gives the team a much better solution than any possible internal option, or any possible solution found in the free agent market. It also saves roughly $10 million that can now be spent elsewhere in the Free Agent market, perhaps on the starting pitching rotation.

Reason Two: Joe Mauer is one of the most consistent hitters in the game, and a move like this will have no negative affect what-so-ever on his offensive production. His career line is almost identical to his 55 game split at the first base position. If anything, the move could offer improvement to an already stellar bat in the Minnesota lineup. Mauer's .324 average and .404 OBP already would have topped the rankings among AL First Basemen in 2013, and more rest during the game (by not crouching behind every pitch) means a healthier and stronger Mauer seeing more pitches, in more games. Over his career, Joe's slugging percentage steadily declines from .514 during the month of May, to .451 during the last month of the season, and his home run numbers have been down since putting up 28 in 2009. Look for Mauer to bring some added, and much appreciated power to his new position.

Reason Three: Josmil Pinto. The 24 year old catching prospect dominated AL pitching in a 21 game stint in the big-leagues last season, hitting .342 with 4 Home Runs and 12 RBI. Pinto is the real deal and could very well find himself as the Minnesota Twins opening day pud-sporter in 2014.

I'm sure gonna miss seeing #7 behind the plate, but couldn't be more excited for his many seasons to come!