Ron Gardenhire on MLBNetwork Radio: Don't Expect Buxton This Year

[Parker Hageman]

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was on MLBNetwork Radio's Power Alley with Jim Duquette and Mike Ferrin this morning and fielded questions regarding the recent promotion of the organization's top prospect Byron Buxton to Double-A New Britain.

 

Gardenhire was asked if the move signified a potential September call-up to Minnesota. Gardenhire threw cold water on that theory. 

 

“I would imagine because he has missed so much time this year I think that they’re just trying to get to a level and see how he competes at that level,” Gardenhire told the MLB Network Radio. “He’s missed an awful lot of baseball with this wrist thing and ultimately that’s what we thought was going to happen – that he was going to end up in Double-A or somewhere near there this year. They’re going get him there and let him face some pretty good competition. My guess is that he probably definitely won’t be making it up here this year but I can still hope, you guys can still hope and that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to hope that he really takes off and we get to take a look at him.”

 

You can listen to Ron Gardenhire's response on SoundCloud here.

[gunnarthor]

Two thoughts

1) This is the right thing to do.  No reason to burn an option year this year.

2) Despite saying "I can still hope", people are going to use this as an example of Gardy preferring vets.

[Twins Twerp]

Two thoughts

1) This is the right thing to do.  No reason to burn an option year this year.

2) Despite saying "I can still hope", people are going to use this as an example of Gardy preferring vets.

Really? How? He hopes he plays well so he can move up. The kid is what? 20? No way he should be up in September. I dont care if he hits .400 the next 2 weeks. He had a lost season and that sucks. But lets not start his arb clock yet.

[iTwins]

My favorite part is Gardy saying "Probably definitely". His definitive probability aside - he's right. It was probably a long shot for Buxton to crack the big leagues this year unless he tore up the league. With all of his injuries, there's no reason to rush him.

[Paul Pleiss]

If Byron Buxton debuts this September then I'm flying all Seattle area Twins fans to Target Field in my private jetliner to watch him debut.*

 

*I don't have a private jet