Twins catcher Joe Mauer recently had surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to. “eliminate a kidney obstruction,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said.

Smith stressed that Mauer’s situation, “ is not serious,” and is expected to be ready to go when Twins pitchers and catchers report for duty on Feb. 14. Mauer had the surgery on Dec. 22.

“It’s something he’s had since he was a kid,” Smith said. “It is something that has bothered him more lately. Everything went fine and he will be ready for the season.”

I’m grateful the Twins revealed the surgery. I heard about something going on with Mauer’s kidneys a couple days ago but was unable to chase people down to confirm anything over the holiday. I was prepared to pepper my sources with calls today when I got a message to call the Twins’ office.

Mauer’s health is a hot-button topic in this town. He missed most of the 2004 season with a knee injury. He had a stress reaction in the same leg during spring of 2007 and had to be shut down for a week or so. But that season he battled a few ailments, Torii Hunter questioned his ability to deal with pain and people clamored to have him moved to third base.

Some of the injury talk went overboard, and I believe he should remain behind the plate because that might be the most vital position on the field and it’s not often you can put a batting champion there. Mauer, still only 25, batted .328 with 9 homers and 85 RBI last season - and I still think he can hit 15-20 homers in a season one of these years.

Anyway, Twins fans should be relieved that the kidney surgery wasn’t serious. I’m not sure how this affects his status for the World Baseball Classic, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Breaking news, Random thoughts, The offseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.