By Annie Walker

St. Paul native, franchise legend and first ballot National Baseball Hall of Famer to be further immortalized at Target Field next season

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins announced this evening that St. Paul native, franchise legend and 2024 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Joe Mauer will have a statue in his honor placed outside of Target Field at a to-be-determined date during the 2025 major league season.

“Joe Mauer is a Hall of Fame player and person, and one of the best to ever wear a Minnesota Twins uniform,” said club Executive Chair Joe Pohlad. “Joe is one of us, and we all went along for the ride as the kid from St. Paul earned his rightful place in Cooperstown as the best-hitting catcher in baseball history. The memories he created for a generation of his fellow Minnesotans will always be cherished, and it is only fitting that our ballpark has a permanent celebration of our hometown baseball hero. On behalf of our organization and Twins fans everywhere, we are thrilled to honor Joe Mauer’s legacy with a Target Field statue.”

On July 21, Mauer joined Harmon Killebrew (1984), Rod Carew (1991), Kirby Puckett (2001), Bert Blyleven (2011), Jim Kaat (2022) and Tony Oliva (2022) as the seventh player enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a Twin, and the third (Carew and Puckett) to be elected on the first ballot. Mauer also became just the third catcher in baseball history to be elected in his first year of eligibility, joining Johnny Bench (1989) and Iván Rodríguez (2017).

Mauer was selected first overall by the Twins in the 2001 First-Year Player Draft out of St. Paul’s Cretin-Derham Hall High School and played 15 major league seasons (2004-18), all with the Twins, joining Oliva as the only players in club history to do so. He hit .306 with 428 doubles, 30 triples, 143 home runs, 923 RBI, 939 walks and an .827 OPS in 1,858 career games, and his 921 games as a catcher are the most in Twins history.

The 2009 American League Most Valuable Player was named to the AL All-Star team six times (2006, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’12 and ’13), earned a Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger Award five times (2006, ’08, ’09, ’10 and ’13), earned three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards at catcher (2008, ’09 and ’10), and won three AL batting titles (2006, ’08 and ’09), the only catcher in AL history to do so. Mauer’s number seven was retired by the Twins on June 15, 2019 and he was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame on August 5, 2023.

Mauer will join Rod Carew (April 2010), Harmon Killebrew (April 2010), Kirby Puckett (April 2010), Carl and Eloise Pohlad (October 2010), Tony Oliva (April 2011), Kent Hrbek (April 2012) and Tom Kelly (June 2017) as Minnesota Twins legends immortalized with a statue outside Target Field. All previous statues are the work of Minnesota-based artist Bill Mack.

COURTESY TWINS MEDIA RELATIONS