Joe Mauer won’t be catching much in the last week of the 2007 MLB season. Mauer has been fighting through leg problems to stay on the field all season, but it appears he won’t have to do it much longer.

“I don’t want to keep forcing this issue,” Gardenhire said. “I told him, ‘I know you want to play out the season, but it’s just kind of asinine to sit there and watch you hit a ball and run like that.’ He bounces out on a chopper and he can hardly move.”

Mauer has admitted he’s been running at far less than 100 percent.

“That’s about as fast as I could go,” Mauer said of the slow jog he took on a recent grounder. “I have a pretty good idea of what I can do right now and what I can’t do. I’m just trying to get to that point, but not go over it. Really, I’m just trying to get through these games and not hurt anything worse.”