From Joe Mauer, Byron Buxton learned that you could still be a leader without being the most vocal person in the room. Max Kepler learned the commitment it takes on a day-in, day-out basis to be a major leaguer. And Caleb Thielbar learned how to handle playing in his home state, where the demands for time and attention are high.

Those three are the only remaining Twins who played with the future hall of famer — Mauer will be officially take his place in Cooperstown on Sunday afternoon — and they all took something different from their time spent sharing a clubhouse with him.

For Thielbar, playing with Mauer and Justin Morneau, both of whom he watched as a teenager in Randolph, Minn, was “pretty unbelievable.”

When Thielbar made his major-league debut in 2013, Mauer was behind the plate guiding him through it. They played together for parts of three seasons.

“There’s not that many catchers in the Hall of Fame, so people that have made their debut throwing to a Hall of Fame catcher is kind of a short list,” Thielbar said. “Just to see the kind of career he had and to be there for a small part of it was really awesome, and just to know the type of guy he is, too, behind the scenes and in the clubhouse and just off the field is really special.”

During his rookie season, Thielbar’s locker at Target Field was right next to Mauer’s corner locker, giving him a chance to talk to him every day.

Mauer, he said, gave him some helpful tips on how to “stay focused on the field and keep my priorities straight off the field,” Thielbar said. And observing him and the consistency it took year in and year out “was really cool to see and really cool to be a part of.”

Kepler had been watching Mauer since he was a teenager in the Twins’ system. He debuted at the end of the 2015 season and then played the next three seasons along side of him.

He remembers one summer when Mauer invited the team to his house to celebrate the Fourth of July on the lake, hosting the group as a bonding activity. It was Kepler’s first or second year in the majors, and he remembers everything seeming “so big and surreal at the time.”

“(He’s) a very down-to-earth, soft-spoken, kind-hearted man,” Kepler said. “Walking into a clubhouse, having him as a teammate, he was almost like a monument.”

A left-handed hitter like Mauer, the right fielder said he “almost tried to remodel” what he did, remaking his approach to be more like Mauer’s.

“When I was in the minors, I was a very opposite field-focused type hitter and (I) just tried to slap the ball like he did,” Kepler said. “I mean, nobody really did it like he did, but yeah, he led by action.”

Mauer may not have been the loudest in the clubhouse, but he was still a leader throughout his 15-year-career. Buxton, also not the loudest voice in the room, learned from Mauer that he could lead in his own way.

“For me, that was kind of more of who I was coming up in the league and kind of gravitated towards that,” Buxton said. “Like I said, it just showed me and also gave me a sense of relaxation that it’s OK to not be that outspoken leader.”

While Mauer might not have been the most outwardly expressive player on the field, Buxton, who played with Mauer for parts of four seasons, describe Mauer’s passion for the game as “second to none.”

“To be able to play with a hall of famer was special, but to take the player away, the person he is is even more incredible,” Buxton said.

“From St. Paul to the Hall”: the Pioneer Press chronicled the careers of Dave Winfield, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris and Joe Mauer, and we’ve compiled the best of our coverage into a new hardcover book that celebrates the legendary baseball legacy of Minnesota’s capital city. Order your copy of “From St. Paul to the Hall.”

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