Brilliant or brittle? Twins catcher Joe Mauer is young, talented and driven. To realize his potential, he'll need to be healthy, too

"The thing here, you're going to have to start deciding what your body can and can't do," Gardenhire says. "It's a pretty hard game at this level. You're going to be beat up.

You're going to have to play through something. And he's going to have to learn that."

The list of players who thrived after moving from catcher is as long and impressive as a Mauer line drive: Dale Murphy, Todd Zeile, Craig Biggio, Mike Sweeney, Carlos Delgado, Gil Hodges, Shea Hillenbrand, B.J. Surhoff and Justin Morneau.

Which raises the most important question facing the Twins: Should they consider moving their most polished hitter to a position, such as first or third base, that would protect his legs?

Gardenhire: "If his knee were blowing up, then I would say, yeah, we need to move him. But a groin muscle--it has nothing to do with catching. So if his knee is fine, then he should be our catcher."

Sweeney, who now is the Royals' first baseman: "Joe's a gifted hitter, but he's also very good behind the plate. For me, once I got to the big leagues, it was a bit different. (Former Royals manager) Tony Muser thought my catching was a liability. If Joe can withstand it, I would say keep him behind the plate."

Yankees manager Joe Torre, who was moved from catcher to first base and, eventually, third base: "If you do the catching job right, yes, it can affect your hitting. As a catcher, you're working with 11 or 12 different personalities on the pitching staff, working on blocking pitches and calling a game. There are times you go hitless at catcher and feel like you had a great game."

Former A's and Twins catcher Terry Steinbach: "If he was just an average catcher, I would probably have moved him already. From what I've seen, and what the pitchers have told me, he's a good to great catcher as well. How do you give that up?"

Twins general manager Terry Ryan says he won't. "We have no interest in thinking about moving him," Ryan says. "Is that clear enough?"

Mauer says he hasn't thought about moving, even though catching means extra days off even when he's healthy. "That thought hasn't even entered my head," he says.

A lefthanded-hitting catcher with Tony Gwynn's swing and Johnny Bench's arm, Mauer, as another famous catcher might say, has most of his future ahead of him.

But then you hear Gardenhire, with his Oklahoma accent, worrying about Mauer's "groan" injury, and you wonder whether the Twins' famous patience will endure if SuperJoeTheNatural can't get healthy.

"I believe that's where he belongs, at catcher," Ryan says. "I know there are stereotypes about catchers who change position and hit better, but I keep looking at Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza and Bob Boone and Carlton Fisk.

"Every guy is different. Those guys played forever, and they were catchers. I just have no interest in thinking about moving Joe."

So, for now, the Twins will keep playing a tricky, worrisome game of catch-as-catcher-can.