Joe Mauer, who currently leads the Minnesota Twins in batting average and on-base percentage, was put on the 15-day DL with a strained left quadriceps muscle. Mauer was last years American League batting champ and was off to a great start so far this year hitting .353/.446/.480. This move is retroactive to May 5th.

So far Mauer is being silent on how long he expects to be out:

“You don’t want to put a timetable on it,” Mauer said. “It could be two weeks, or it could be more. Hopefully it’s not much more.”

This means he will be out for next weekend’s series against the Tigers at the Metrodome. Joe went 4-for-10 with a walk and a home run in the last series against Detroit. Instead, the Twins have called up Chris Heintz to fill in as catcher, Heintz is batting .277 in Class AAA Rochester.

Injury Prone AL Central: A number of AL Central teams have already been battling injuries to key players this season. White Sox have offensive leaders Jim Thome and Scott Podsednik on the DL, Cleveland recently took key starter Cliff Lee off the DL, Twins now have their batting champ Mauer and the Tigers have crutical setup man Joel Zumaya on the disabled list in addition to starter Kenny Rogers. The Royals have Reggie Sanders on the 15-day DL and recently got back injured second-baseman Mark Grudzielanek who made some big plays against the Tigers yesterday.