It's scary, but increasingly less relevant to the Hall of Fame discussion. Kendall's bat only had about two seasons where it would have really played at a star level anywhere but catcher. Meanwhile, an average Joe Mauer year (.323/.405/.468) is basically Will Clark. He's already logged the peak years where Kendall didn't, so the worry is that he'll Kendall (good call on verbing that) in his 30s. Which actually wouldn't make him Jason Kendall, but Dale Murphy - who still gets Hall of Fame votes.

The suddenness that defines Kendall-ing is the worrisome thing here. A normal decline doesn't look like the foreign application of dark magicks, so hopefully Mauer will settle into catching less in his decline years and the early 30s will look like an old man settling into a warm bath instead of Jean-Paul Marat settling into a warm bath.

On the other hand, the Twins training staff has looked like the Charlotte Cordays of sports medicine lately, so... fright accomplished.