Joe Mauer

, he is the most recent catcher to win (or even place in the top three in the voting) the MVP award in the American League, and one of only two catchers to win an MVP in the 21st century along with Buster Posey.

Joseph Patrick Mauer (born April 19, 1983) is an American former professional baseball catcher and first baseman, who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Minnesota Twins.

Widely regarded as the greatest contact hitter of all time at the catcher position in his prime, Mauer is the only catcher in MLB history to win three batting titles, and the only catcher to ever win a batting title in the American League (AL).

Mauer caught for the Team USA Junior National team from 1998 to 2000 and hit .595 during his final year on the team.

He finished his two-year career as a starter with 5,528 yards and 73 touchdowns, leading the Raiders to two consecutive Class 5A State Championship Game appearances and winning the title in 1999, the Raiders' first of all time.

In his senior year, he became the only athlete ever to be selected as the USA Today High School Player of the Year in two sports (football in 2000 as a quarterback and baseball in 2001 as a catcher).

He was voted best hitter at the World Junior Baseball Championship in Canada in 2000.

In 2000, he appeared in the Faces in the Crowd section in Sports Illustrated.

During his senior season as the Raiders' quarterback, Mauer completed 178 of 269 passes (66% completion percentage), for 3,022 yards, 41 touchdowns and five interceptions.

Mauer was also named National High School Quarterback of the Year in 2000 by The National Quarterback Club.

After committing to play football at Florida State University, Mauer ultimately decided instead to enter the Major League Baseball Draft.

Mauer was selected by the Twins as the first overall pick of the 2001 MLB draft and was a fan favorite during his career in large part due to him being a Minnesota native.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2024.

Mauer played football, basketball, and baseball for St. Paul's Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders.

In 2001, Mauer was voted the United States District V Player of the Year.

Mauer averaged more than 20 points a game as a point guard for Cretin-Derham Hall.

He was also named to the All-State team during his final two years on Cretin-Derham's basketball team.

Mauer had an accomplished high school football career.

Mauer was honored as the 2001 Gatorade National Player of the Year, was named to the USA Today All-USA high school football team, was honored as USA Today's Player of the Year, was a Reebok/ESPN High School All-American, and was awarded Player of the Year for the game that would go on to be known as the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Mauer was selected by the Twins as the first overall pick of the 2001 draft, ahead of college pitcher Mark Prior, who was taken second overall by the Chicago Cubs.

Mauer was part of the United States' roster at the 2003 All-Star Futures Game at U.S. Cellular Field before being promoted to the Twins' roster in 2004 after his predecessor, A. J. Pierzynski, was traded to the San Francisco Giants, in the 2003 offseason.

Mauer made his major league debut on April 5, 2004, and finished the game 2-for-3, hitting a single off Rafael Betancourt of the Cleveland Indians for his first major-league hit.

A knee injury to his left medial meniscus on April 7, 2004, required surgery and sidelined Mauer for more than a month.

After a rehabilitation stint with the Twins' Triple-A affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings, Mauer returned to the Twins' lineup in June.

In July, pain and swelling in his knee forced an early end to Mauer's 2004 season.

Following his injury-shortened 2004, Mauer signed a contract for under a million with the Twins on January 24, 2005.

In 2005, Mauer returned to the Twins' lineup for his first full major league season, and batted .294 with 144 hits, nine home runs and 55 RBI in 131 games.

Mauer received six All-Star selections and won three consecutive Gold Glove Awards (2008–2010), five Silver Slugger Awards (including three in a row) and the 2009 AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award.

In December 2009, Sports Illustrated magazine included Mauer in its article on ten "signature" moments in U.S. high-school sports in the 2000–2009 decade, referring to his selection by the Minnesota Twins as the first pick in the 2001 Major League Baseball draft.

Mauer attended the same high school as Baseball Hall of Famer and former Milwaukee Brewer Paul Molitor who later became his major league manager with the Twins.

Molitor has said that Mauer "has the best swing he had ever seen".

Jim O'Neill, Mauer's baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall, said his former student "has been groomed for this job since he was a little boy. Mauer's dad, Jake, created a contraption for Joe he later named the 'Quickswing.' The device dropped balls down a tube from eye level and released them at waist level."

Mauer had been asked to leave his T-ball league at the age of four, because he was hitting the ball too hard for the other players.

"Another guy that came from Cretin-Derham Hall, Paul Molitor, was very similar, [and] had a good short swing," O'Neill said.

"And they're both able to wait on the ball so long because they don't have the big swing. Like anything, you keep simple and keep it small or short, there's not a lot of holes in it and not a lot of room for errors."

A stand-out in baseball, Mauer struck out only once during his four-year high school career (though he did strike out in the All-Star game his senior year which isn’t included in his overall stats).

He hit .605 during his senior season.

Years later, Mauer laughingly told an interviewer: "I can remember the time I did strike out. It was junior year, and it was in the state tournament. I came back to the bench and everybody thought something was wrong with me."

Mauer's high school batting average exceeded .500 every year.

He also set a Minnesota high school record and tied the national preps mark by hitting a home run in seven consecutive games.