Joe Mauer enters Ed Sheeran phase

Twins veteran Joe Mauer entered spring training with two goals: Contributing to another Minnesota playoff run and turning his teammates on to the music of British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.

“He was in the clubhouse one morning right when we reported just going on about Ed Sheeran,” said Twins outfielder Byron Buxton. “He was offering to burn us his CDs if we promised not to tell any cops. I think he thinks there are music cops?”

The 4-time Grammy winner appears to have really caught Mauer’s ear in the 2017 offseason.

“I guess he and his wife went to a concert or something,” said manager Paul Molitor. “The next day, he was texting me about Ed Sheeran and if I knew who he was. I thought he was talking about a new umpire, but then he started sending me YouTube links of his songs. He made sure they were the clean versions.”

Mauer confirmed that he was a big fan of the “Don’t” and “Thinking Out Loud” singer to reporters on Thursday.

“Yeah, he’s pretty rockin’,” said Mauer. “He plays the acoustic guitar, but then he does raps. Some of them are about S-E-X. At the concert he used some strong language, but Mom wasn’t there so the adult themes were OK. He’s pretty wild.”

Justin Morneau, former teammate of Mauer and current Twins assistant, says this isn’t the first time the former AL MVP has come back from vacation fired up about an artist.

“He went to a wedding one winter and heard OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya’ for the first time,” said Morneau. “He called me at home and asked me if I had heard the Lucy Liu song before. I told him yeah, everyone has, and then he asked if Lucy Liu was code for smoking drugs. I told him she was an actress. It was a weird conversation.”