Here’s a look at Joe Mauer’s career timeline:

June 5, 2001: The Twins selected Mauer, 18, with the first overall pick. The Cretin-Derham Hall alum said at the time that it was “kind of a fairy tale.” 

Summer 2001: After inking his first contract, the Twins sent Mauer to rookie league ball, where he would make his professional debut. Mauer went on to hit .400 in 32 games with the Elizabethton Twins in Tennessee.

Nov. 14, 2003: The Twins traded their starting catcher, A.J. Pierzynski, to the San Francisco Giants, paving the way for Mauer to take over at the position. They received Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser in return in one of the most lopsided trades in franchise history.

April 5, 2004: Mauer made his highly-anticipated major league debut, skipping Triple-A and heading straight to the majors. He went 2 for 3 with a pair of walks and a pair of runs scored against the Cleveland Indians. A day later, he suffered a knee injury that required surgery. He played in just 35 games that season.

July 2006: Mauer reached July hitting a whopping .392. He played in his first All-Star Game that month — he would be bestowed with the honor five more times in his career. He finished the season hitting .347 and winning his first batting title. He was the first catcher to win a batting title in 64 years

May 1, 2009: After winning his second batting title in 2008, Mauer missed the first month of the 2009 campaign with a back injury. In his first at-bat of the season, on May 1, he hit a home run. That was the beginning of the best season of his career. He hit .365 with a career-high 28 home runs and 96 runs batted in. For his efforts, he was named the American League Most Valuable Player.

March 22, 2010: Mauer, who was set to become a free agent at season’s end, officially inked an eight-year, $184 million contract extension. That deal would keep him in Minnesota for the entirety of his career.

Aug. 19, 2013: On a career-altering day, Mauer took a foul tip to the helmet in a game against the New York Mets. He finished the rest of the game, but it would be his last of the season — and the end of his time as a catcher. For the final five seasons of his career, he would be a first baseman.

April 12, 2018: Mauer collected the 2,000th hit of his career in a game against the Chicago White Sox. He joined fellow hall of famers Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew as the only players in club history to reach the milestone with the franchise. He finished his career with 2,123 hits.

Sept. 30, 2018: On an emotional day at Target Field, Mauer doubled in the final at-bat of his career and donned the catcher’s gear one last time. Mauer, who had yet to announce his retirement plans, caught one pitch from reliever Matt Belisle in the ninth inning and then exited to an ovation from the hometown crowd.

Nov. 9, 2018: Mauer announced he was retiring and later penned a letter to fans, calling it a career after 15 major league seasons with the Twins. In the note, he said the decision came down to health, citing the risk of concussion after suffering another one during the 2018 season, and family, writing he must “look beyond baseball at what is best for me as a husband and father.”

June 15, 2019: The Twins didn’t wait long to retire Mauer’s number, 7, doing so less than a year after his retirement. Mauer became the ninth person to have his number retired by the Twins, joining Harmon Killebrew, Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Puckett, Bert Blyleven, Tom Kelly and  Brooklyn Dodgers hall of famer Jackie Robinson.

Aug. 5, 2023: Mauer became the 38th member inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony at Target Field. Twins Emily and Maren and son Chip threw out ceremonial pitches to their father.

Jan. 23, 2024: Mauer was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, just the third catcher to ever receive that honor. He received 76.1 percent of the vote.