Twins' Mauer heads to DL with neck strain, concussion-like symptoms
Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer was placed on the 10-day disabled list Saturday with a cervical neck strain stemming from a play he made on defense last week, the team announced.
Mauer is also dealing with concussion-like symptoms - namely, he had balance issues and was feeling sensitive to light after being removed from Friday's game against Milwaukee, manager Paul Molitor told Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. However, Mauer - who was forced to stop catching because of his concussion history - did pass a concussion test Friday, and though the Twins say he's dealing with those symptoms, he did not suffer a concussion.
Until those symptoms cease, Mauer will remain at home, Bollinger reports.
"Any time you're dealing with any types of symptoms like this for any player, you're very sensitive to it, but given Joe's history we want to be more proactive with that," Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey told Bollinger. "I would say that as of right now, I don't want to make any comments about long term because we took a pretty cautious approach to this. We just want Joe to be in the right place when he returns."
Mauer suffered the neck injury May 11 during the Twins' game in Anaheim when he unsuccessfully dove for a foul ball. He didn't miss any games after the injury despite the neck bothering him all week (Mauer hit safely in 5 of 6 games after suffering the injury), but the issue escalated Friday, forcing the Twins to take him out of the game after five innings.
"It's kinda more left (side) but kind of the whole back/neck," Mauer said after Friday's game, according to LaVelle E. Neale III of the Star Tribune. "Like I said, I've been getting treatment on it the last couple days. Today it just got worse so we thought it was the best move."
The 35-year-old Mauer is in the midst of a stellar season for Minnesota, hitting .283/.404/.355 with a homer, seven doubles, 11 RBIs, and 28 walks. His three defensive runs saved are the most among qualified American League first basemen this year.
In a corresponding roster move, the Twins promoted outfielder Jake Cave - their 25th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline - from Triple-A Rochester. Cave will make his big-league debut on Saturday, hitting seventh and playing center field against the Brewers.