All-Star catcher Mauer excited to return to Twins

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Joe Mauer looked tanned, a little thinner and relaxed as he talked about returning to the Minnesota Twins.

His 57-game absence was hardly a vacation, however.

The four-time All-Star catcher calmly dismissed questions about his ability to play through discomfort, insisted he doesn’t have some mysterious disease and characteristically tried to deflect focus back to the team.

The face of the franchise with the $184 million contract will always be scrutinized, though, and during the two months he missed, the spotlight only grew brighter as doubt about his future at the game’s most demanding position increased.

“I don’t see it being a problem in the years to come,” Mauer said Thursday after the Twins announced they’ll reinstate him from the 60-day disabled list to play Friday.

He went out April 12 with a condition called bilateral leg weakness, fatigue exacerbated at the time by a severe flulike virus. The weakness was caused by his body overcompensating for his left knee, on which he had arthroscopic surgery on last December.

Mauer was beat up last year, when his production dropped off. He tried to rehabilitate and rest in the offseason, but that didn’t work so he had the operation later than desired for full recovery.

“Rehab is always preferred to doing surgery if you can do it,” general manager Bill Smith said.

Mauer took spring training slowly and was assumed to be ready for the regular season, but he never felt right once April came.

“Before I actually went on the DL, I was like, ‘Am I helping or hurting the team right now?’ And that was something that I really struggled with,” Mauer said. “It got to the point where I just couldn’t even get out on the field, and you have to kind of step back and look at what you’re doing.”

He added: “As much as I’d like to snap my fingers and wish it would go away, it just needed to take the time.”

Mauer was batting .235 with one extra-base hit when he went out.

“It was pretty evident to everybody that Joe wasn’t the Joe Mauer we’ve come to expect over the last few years, and we made the decision to shut him down and basically restart the training and conditioning program,” general manager Bill Smith said.

Left-handed reliever Glen Perkins will also be reinstated Friday from the 15-day disabled list. Outfielder Brian Dinkelman was sent to Triple-A Rochester and removed from the 40-man roster to make room for Mauer. Left-hander Chuck James was sent to Triple-A Rochester to make room for Perkins.

“This is the first piece of getting our ballclub back together,” said Smith, who took shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka off the disabled list Wednesday.

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