Over his Hall of Fame career, Joe Mauer compiled 2,123 hits, winning three American League batting championships along the way. Mauer led the Twins to four postseason appearances.

During his career, Mauer hit 143 home runs, 30 triples, 428 doubles and 1,522 singles during the regular season, many to left field. He batted .275 in 44 postseason plate appearances. The hometown hero's remarkable 15-year run made the Twins the focal point of Minnesota sports in the early 2000s.

When Mauer retired in 2018, he made it clear Minnesota would still be home base for him and his family.

"I was a Twins fan before I was a Twin," Mauer said, "I don't plan on going anywhere unless you guys don't want me. I'm here."

Here's a look at Mauer's career with the Twins and what made it so special.

Every hit off Mauer's bat

Remarkable MVP 2009 season

Mauer's 2009 season got off to a late start. A back injury kept him from the diamond for the first month of the regular season. But when he stepped out of the dugout on May 1, he made up for lost time. He hit a homer in his first game back — and then 10 more in that month alone.

Mauer would go on to hit 28 home runs and boast a batting average of .365 for the 2009 season — one of the highest batting averages for any catcher in big-league history and a single-season high that hasn't been bested by any player in any position since.

The extraordinary season was unusual even for Mauer. He never hit even half as many home runs in a regular season again.

Maybe related, maybe not: 2009 was also the Twins' last season at the Metrodome.

Notable opponents

Gavin Floyd

Mauer regularly dominated Gavin Floyd across the seven seasons the righthander pitched for the Chicago White Sox. In 60 career plate appearances against Floyd, Mauer batted .396 with three home runs while striking out just five times. In 2008, Mauer's one-out hit in the ninth inning broke up a potential Floyd no-hitter, one of three attempted no-hitters Mauer ended in the ninth inning during his career.

But it wasn't just Mauer. The Twins often dominated against Floyd. Right off the bat of the 2012 season, the Twins' all-time batting average against him was .314.

CC Sabathia

Despite Mauer's impressive performance at the plate, there were some pitchers he never quite figured out — namely, ace Cleveland and New York lefthander CC Sabathia.

Twice in his career, once in 2007 and again in 2012, Mauer struck out three times against Sabathia in a single game. After the 2012 game, Mauer had this to say about Sabathia's ability to control the game:

"That's the best I've seen him, and I've been watching him for a long time," Mauer said. "He was using both sides of the plate. Fastball, slider, sinker. He threw me everything, and everything was working."

An on-base maestro

Mauer's on-base percentage of .444 in 2009 is one of the best for any catcher in history. Josh Gibson, who starred as a catcher in the Negro Leagues before Black players were allowed in Major League Baseball and whose statistics were recently added to the official records, compiled a career on-base percentage of .458.

While Mauer couldn't keep up those MVP stats after his league-leading 2009 season, Mauer's on-base percentage never dipped below .351 throughout his career, and he finished with a career on-base percentage of .388.

Despite his continued ability to get on-base, the percent of Mauer's plate appearances that ended in a strikeout increased significantly toward the end of his career.

Mauer announced his retirement in November 2018, a month after his final game at Target Field.

"That day also had me reflecting on how baseball is about so much more than stats and personal accolades," he said in a letter to Twins fans. "For me it's about the life lessons I have learned along the way."

Victoria Stavish is an intern for the data team at the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Ellie Lin is a designer for the Minnesota Star Tribune.

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