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Joe Mauer Injury: Drew Butera Will Start At Catcher While Mauer Is On The DL

The Minnesota Twins have put their everyday catcher Joe Mauer on the DL with a condition known as bi-lateral leg weakness. While he is on the DL, the Twins will replace him with Drew Butera in the Starting Lineup, according to Aaron Gleeman of NBC Sports.

Butera is a very good defensive catcher, but he hasn't shown the ability to hit at all, not even during his time in the minor leagues. Gleeman even referred to Butera as "perhaps MLB's worst hitter," which means he probably won't be able to make too many Twins fans forget about Mauer while he is on the DL.

It is worth noting that the Twins had a very food catching prospect in their minor league system last season in Wilson Ramos, but they traded him to the Washington Nationals at the deadline for reliever Matt Capps. Ramos has hits in ten of his 22 at-bats so far this season, good for a .455 average, while he splits time with Pudge Rodriguez in the Nation's Capital. Hindsight is obviously 20/20, but this would have been a good time to still have Ramos in the organization.

Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.