Thursday evening, word spread that the Minnesota Twins were sending catcher Joe Mauer to the disabled list with "bilateral weakness" in his legs. Now on Friday, Ron Gardenhire hints that Mauer could be gone longer than 15 days. Quote:

"Honestly, I don't know how long it's going to be. We've got the DL time, the two weeks, 15-dayer, but I don't know how long it's going to be, because this is something we haven't had to deal with."

One complication is that, while Mauer was set to visit a specialist in Baltimore on Friday to see about his issue, he's been delayed due to a presumably unrelated illness. Mauer went to the hospital Thursday night complaining of flu-like symptoms, and he's still not feeling very well. So any visit to any specialist will be delayed.

The cause of Mauer's weakness is, at this point, a mystery. One thing that seems to be certain is that it isn't coming from his troublesome knees. Gardenhire speculates that Mauer may actually be feeling weak because he's trying to compensate for the knee he had operated on over the offseason, but no one knows for sure. It's worth noting that Mauer has been diagnosed with inflammation of the sacroiliac joint in the past, located between his spine and his pelvis.

While Mauer is away, Drew Butera and Steve Holm will handle the catching duties.