Corner lockers in the home clubhouse at Target Field are reserved for the pillars of the team, so to speak. They’re double lockers that are more spacious and more accommodating not only for the player and all his possessions, but also for them to allow a larger crowd of media around them before or after the game.
Joe Mauer has had the same one — the northwest corner if you were to label them from the point of view of where media enters the clubhouse — since Target Field opened in 2010. Some of the more notable players to have those lockers were Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer and Glen Perkins.
This year, those corner lockers have changed hands a bit more than in the past. Fernando Rodney’s locker was handed down to Addison Reed after the trade in August. Zach Duke’s locker went to Matt Belisle just before then as well.
With Mauer coming out of the game in the bottom of the sixth on Friday night, waving to the fans and before that, announcing the decision to play in all four games of the final weekend, the writing is pretty clearly on the wall that he’s as close to retiring as one can be without formally announcing it.
But the path to a completely new-look Twins team has had its wheels in motion for quite a while now. The team traded three roster mainstays at the Trade Deadline — Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar and Ryan Pressly — and the movement doesn’t stop there.
Even without the potential of Mauer retiring, Ervin Santana almost certainly won’t be back — at least not at the rate his option calls for ($14 million). Even without trades, Dozier and Escobar were slated for free agency in the offseason, with no guarantee of a reunion with either.
So what does this all mean?
It’s something that I’m not sure fans have thought about very much, but with just two games left before the Twins embark on the winter before returning to Fort Myers’ sand and sunshine in early 2019, it’s clear that the roster that turns up for Spring Training is going to be very, very different.
What makes things different is that next season will be a fresh start. As Twins director of team travel Mike Herman said in a piece on him earlier this year, it’s easy to handle the changes in-season because there’s always a game the next day.
The game doesn’t quit because a guy leaves — it just keeps soldiering on.
And to that end, there’s potential for next spring to be a really weird experience, though not necessarily in any sort of bad way.
There isn’t any meaningful analysis here or anything — just a public service announcement.
With what we’ve heard about how the brass viewed handing out one-year deals as not necessarily beneficial to the team, the team having a bunch of money coming off their payroll and a roster largely made up of young players still trying to find their way, 2019 is going to be the dawning of a new era of Minnesota Twins baseball…..
….and that’s with or without Joe Mauer.
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