Twins catcher Joe Mauer is selling his residences in Florida and will spend offseasons in Minnesota.
Jake Mauer told Sports Headliners his grandson has sold one property and has two residences on the market. “He wants to raise the girls in Minnesota and doesn’t want his wife going back and forth,” Jake said. “He won’t go to Florida until spring training(s).”
Joe has legally been a Florida resident but that will change now with wife Maddie having given birth last month to twin daughters Emily and Maren. Their births were premature and Mauer flew home from the West Coast in a rush, arriving at the airport 40 minutes prior to delivery. “He was really shook up,” Jake said.
The girls, after reaching weights of five pounds, were allowed to leave the hospital and go home last weekend. That begins a new chapter in the lives of Joe and Maddie who have known each other since high school and were married last year.
Jake said another losing season by the Twins has been a “grind” for Joe who also was worried that first baseman Justin Morneau, his close friend, would be traded. But Jake predicts Joe will finish the season with “about a .335” batting average and hit 15 home runs.
That average won’t be enough to earn a fourth American League batting title, Jake said. The Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera is leading Mauer by 40 points in the batting race.
“He (Joe) wants that batting crown but he won’t get it,” Jake said. “(Cabrera) is too much.”
Jake, 83, is retired from Canterbury Park where he sold his racing tip sheet and was a popular figure for years. His April 6 birthday is the same as Twins Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven.