Joe Mauer circumspect of his chances after Hall of Fame nomination: "We'll see what happens and hope for the best"

The 2024 class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame was released on Monday and Joe Mauer is among the newest members to find a spot on the list. The ex-Minnesota Twins star shares his nomination with 11 other candidates for the 2024 class of National Baseball HOF. Aside from the new nominees, 14 holdovers from the previous year will also compete for one of the greatest baseball honors.

Despite an above-average career and a good overall record, Mauer is a bit skeptical of his chances at Cooperstown in 2024. Keeping his career-altering injuries in mind, Mauer said that he'll see what happens (via The Athletic):

"There’s nothing I can do except be humbled and honored that I’m on it. We’ll see what happens and hope for the best. But it’s a tremendous honor to be on the ballot and it would be unbelievable if it goes further than that. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

“Obviously, the concussions, it happened. Things happen in the course of a career and I’m thankful I had the time to be behind the plate because that’s what I enjoyed the most.

"I love the position in baseball, being behind the plate, calling pitches, working with the staff. I really took a lot of pride in that. I know a lot of people out there maybe know me a little bit more for the bat, but I took a lot of pride in trying to be a complete player and trying to be just as good defensively as I could be offensively. But we’ll see what happens.”

Joe Mauer's exceptional career as a Twin in MLB

Since his debut in 2004, Joe Mauer spent all his 15 baseball seasons with the Minnesota Twins. He played a total of 1,858 games and recorded a .306 batting average.

He won Batting Title in 2006, 2008, and 2009 recording the highest by any MLB catcher. Mauer also represented Team USA as a catcher and 1B in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Apart from batting accolades, Mauer received the Silver Slugger Award five times and the Gold Glove three times during his MLB career. Moreover, he was a six-time All-Star and was named MVP once in his career.

Along with 143 home runs, Joe Mauer recorded 2,123 hits and scored a total of 1,018 runs in his career.

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