How Did the Buxton Process Go So Horribly Wrong?

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins kicked off their spring training down in Fort Myers as they have for years. There was buzz about this team being strong enough to contend for the AL Central. Byron Buxton’s contributions likely would be a large part of that, but we’re now in August wondering how that part went so horribly wrong?

 

Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

During spring training the Twins continued to insist that Alex Kirilloff and Jorge Polanco would be ready for Opening Day. They weren’t. They suggested that Byron Buxton, who had offseason knee surgery, would be eased back into centerfield. He hasn’t been. The former pair have contributed plenty this season, albeit with limitations through more injury. The latter has yet to step foot on the field in a defensive alignment, and it’s hard to understand how we got here.

Buxton dealt with knee issues all of last season after sliding into second base awkwardly after a double against the Boston Red Sox. His season was one filled with knee-drains and time on the trainer’s table. Sure, his 92 games played were the most since 2017, but that seemed to give him a weird goal to chase.

Speaking at the Twins uniform unveiling, Buxton told me about wanting to play in more games than he had during 2022. That’s a great goal to have, but one that became clouded over the course of 2023. Rather than contributing anything defensively, the Twins put him at designated hitter and allowed those games played to count in a similar fashion. Sure, he was in the lineup, but his .731 OPS, 98 OPS+, and clogging a bat-only position did little for Rocco Baldelli’s lineup flexibility.

Now on the Injured Lists, this time nursing a sore hamstring, the Twins seem to believe it’s at this point that Buxton should be pushed back to the field. In a recent article from The Athletic, Baldelli is quoted saying this is where his legs are going to be best positioned to play the field. That seems like absolute lunacy considering what should have taken place during the offseason.

At no point should Buxton have been more healthy than he would have been coming into the season. Rather than prepare him to contribute on both sides of the ball, Minnesota put Buxton at the designated hitter spot. That was a fine stance before the emergence of Matt Wallner and Edouard Julien. It worked before Royce Lewis returned. It was ok for a while. It shouldn’t have continued happening though.

On May 4, Buxton owned a .920 OPS for Minnesota. In the 56 games he played after that, all at designated hitter, while unable to be even a defensive replacement late in a game, he posted a .178/.263/.366 slash line. His 71/20 K/BB would have made even Miguel Sano blush, and yet he was no closer to playing the field.

As the calendar turns to September, and Buxton is apparently working toward a return, Minnesota now finds it the time to put him back in the outfield. That’s a great stance in that he has no business taking the designated hitter role away from other players or out of the hands of Baldelli. That doesn’t make it any less curious of one, however.

Why now, after a few weeks off, is it a viable plan to build Buxton back up? Did the Twins do a terrible job getting Buxton ready for the season? Was Buxton set against allowing Minnesota the opportunity to play him in the field? No matter the reason, the timing and execution of everything that has gone into this process has been flawed by all parties.

It’s a great thing that Minnesota won’t bring Buxton back solely as the designated hitter. We have seen for months that doesn’t work, and it’s beyond clear it also doesn’t keep him healthy. Maybe Buxton’s body will never again hold up for a full season, but chasing games played over the pursuit of complete contribution is not one that should ever be employed again.

Minnesota is better with a good Byron Buxton on the roster. They are not well-served by having him only use his bat, and playing him at anything less than full go shouldn’t be a thing either. The Twins signed Buxton for pennies on the dollar because he is always injured. That’s baked into what they can get from him. Putting him in the lineup as a full participant should be the only way to go the rest of his career, and if that means 80 games a season, so be it.

Let’s not ever do this again, for anyone involved.

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[Woof Bronzer]

Many TD posters questioned the Twins' handling of the Buxton situation earlier in the season -- for example, how someone could be healthy enough to sprint around the bases but not healthy enough to sprint around the outfield - and we were told it was stupid and borderline offensive to question the Twins because if he was healthy enough to play CF he would be playing CF, end of story.  Now it appears it's ok to be questioning the Twins' approach.  Interesting.

I'll ask another question:  how in the world does it make any sense for Buxton to be ramping up to play the field....while he's on the IL?

[Mike Sixel]

6 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Many TD posters questioned the Twins' handling of the Buxton situation earlier in the season -- for example, how someone could be healthy enough to sprint around the bases but not healthy enough to sprint around the outfield - and we were told it was stupid and borderline offensive to question the Twins because if he was healthy enough to play CF he would be playing CF, end of story.  Now it appears it's ok to be questioning the Twins' approach.  Interesting.

I'll ask another question:  how in the world does it make any sense for Buxton to be ramping up to play the field....while he's on the IL?

There is questioning their belief he can't play CF but can the field.....and there is questioning should he be playing at all. Two very different questions.

I would sit him until next year, but I'm clearly not the FO or in agreement with them on many decisions.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Ted, You present quite the conundrum. 

[PatPfund]

We’ll never know how/if things were botched, because we’ve never really known the physical issues. He could feel better with rest because the extended rest has done some healing. Or maybe just cooled the problem until he starts playing again. Don’t know but it is sad I hope he stays on the IL longer.

[chpettit19]

59 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

I'll ask another question:  how in the world does it make any sense for Buxton to be ramping up to play the field....while he's on the IL?

What are guys on the IL supposed to be doing if not ramping up to play?

[tony&rodney]

The optics are pretty unusual. Buxton can still run but apparently pays a high price every time he runs and was not considered at any point this season to be fit enough physically to play in the field despite the open acknowledgment that being a DH was very difficult for Byron and likely affected him. It is what it is. 

I'm wondering if Buxton is at a point in his life where he is concerned with his ability to walk without pain and where he decides that the debilitating pain and the potential further damage to his mobility has reached the critical stage. I would not be at all surprised if he is facing retirement.

[Mike Sixel]

23 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

What are guys on the IL supposed to be doing if not ramping up to play?

playing video games?

[Mike Sixel]

22 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The optics are pretty unusual. Buxton can still run but apparently pays a high price every time he runs and was not considered at any point this season to be fit enough physically to play in the field despite the open acknowledgment that being a DH was very difficult for Byron and likely affected him. It is what it is. 

I'm wondering if Buxton is at a point in his life where he is concerned with his ability to walk without pain and where he decides that the debilitating pain and the potential further damage to his mobility has reached the critical stage. I would not be at all surprised if he is facing retirement.

If I'm him, I try one more year....but if next year is like this, I work out a retirement deal with the team.....because I want to walk. That said, I'm not a hyper competitive professional athlete.

[chpettit19]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

playing video games?

So I can claim to be on the IL and pretend I'm still an athlete?

[chpettit19]

28 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The optics are pretty unusual. Buxton can still run but apparently pays a high price every time he runs and was not considered at any point this season to be fit enough physically to play in the field despite the open acknowledgment that being a DH was very difficult for Byron and likely affected him. It is what it is. 

I'm wondering if Buxton is at a point in his life where he is concerned with his ability to walk without pain and where he decides that the debilitating pain and the potential further damage to his mobility has reached the critical stage. I would not be at all surprised if he is facing retirement.

I gave a sad face because I actually wonder the same thing, and it's sad. Body just seems to be failing him.

[nicksaviking]

I mentioned it in another thread, but I'd give Austin Martin the CF job and see if that builds a fire in Buxton to take it back next year.

Not that I in anyway think Buxton isn't hurting and trying his best, but hopefully he can physically heal and be extra motivated come next spring.

Also, speaking of Arraez, it seems as though he's going through a late season swoon as he typically did with the Twins, I wonder if his knee is acting up once again too.

[rv78]

The only take I see on this, is that Buxton wasn't healthy before the season started, hasn't been healthy after the season started, and isn't healthy now. He has contributed very little this year and the team would possibly be better had a different DH been used instead of him. The FO made the mistake of trying to play him any where or any how they could dream up. His last 2 injuries before this season even started were NOT from playing CF. If you're going to protect him he should NOT be in the lineup, period. When a guy bats, eventually he has to RUN the bases. If he can't run in the field he has no business running the bases. A FO that has common sense would know that. I think they have very little. He should have taken the whole year off or at least the first half and gotten healed up completely instead of the half-clocked approach they took with him. A healthy Buxton playing in CF would definitely help the team. Unfortunately we have seldom seen it and may never will again. 

[SoDakTwinsFan]

We are here because the Twins thought it was a good idea to sign a very injury prone player who only had one good season to a long term contract.

[KirbyDome89]

53 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

What are guys on the IL supposed to be doing if not ramping up to play?

That's not really the question though right? I assume the poster is asking why now? Why after 130 games, while on the IL, are we talking about "ramping up?"

If he wasn't healthy enough to play CF in April or May after an entire offseason, the idea that an IL stint this late in the season is some sort of panacea seems odd no?

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, KirbyDome89 said:

That's not really the question though right? I assume the poster is asking why now? Why after 130 games, while on the IL, are we talking about "ramping up?"

If he wasn't healthy enough to play CF in April or May after an entire offseason, the idea that an IL stint this late in the season is some sort of panacea seems odd no?

No, it doesn't seem odd to me. They're not trying to maximize him for 162 games now. They're trying to maximize him for 30.

Their stated plan coming into the season was to start him at DH and build him up into playing the field depending on how his body reacted in order to maximize his games played and ABs, correct? Body apparently didn't react how they were hoping with the fulltime DH thing so the team, drs, Buxton, everybody apparently didn't think putting him in CF in April or May made sense because it'd more than likely take him out of the lineup for a massive chunk of the season. There's not a massive chunk of the season left to worry about. There's a month + playoffs (hopefully). The math has changed.

I don't think we'll find many people who'd want to argue that the plan worked. Whether the plan was right or not is a different debate, and I'm sure we'd find many people on each side of that debate. But the plan didn't work out. But there's a very clear difference, to me at least, between trying to get him through 1-2 months and trying to get him through 6-7 months.

[Woof Bronzer]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

What are guys on the IL supposed to be doing if not ramping up to play?

Let me try to understand this.  A couple months ago, he was healthy enough to sprint around the bases, but not healthy enough to sprint around the outfield.  Now, he's not healthy enough to do either...in games....but after months more wear and tear and his body continuing to degrade... now he's finally healthy enough to sprint around the outfield?  With a bum hamstring?  A lot of posters here were pretty adamant about how physically taxing playing CF is so I guess I'm lost as to how he couldn't play CF with a healthy hammy but now he's "ramping up" with one that's kept him out of the lineup for almost a month.  

It would be like the Twins putting Duran on the IL with elbow issues and announcing they're stretching him out to return as a starter.  

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Let me try to understand this.  A couple months ago, he was healthy enough to sprint around the bases, but not healthy enough to sprint around the outfield.  Now, he's not healthy enough to do either...in games....but after months more wear and tear and his body continuing to degrade... now he's finally healthy enough to sprint around the outfield?  With a bum hamstring?  A lot of posters here were pretty adamant about how physically taxing playing CF is so I guess I'm lost as to how he couldn't play CF with a healthy hammy but now he's "ramping up" with one that's kept him out of the lineup for almost a month.  

It would be like the Twins putting Duran on the IL with elbow issues and announcing they're stretching him out to return as a starter.  

I mean his current "ramping up" is some basic "baseball activities." Why bring up the hamstring? Is your belief that he's going to return while he still has a "bum hamstring?" This is exactly what every player does as they heal on the IL. Royce Lewis "ramped up" after his oblique. Jorge Polanco "ramped up" after his hammy. Brock Stewart is reportedly "ramping up" after his arm problems. Alex Kirilloff is hopefully "ramping up" after his shoulder. That's literally what happens with players on the IL.

I'm not going to get into the "playing the outfield plus hitting is clearly the same thing as just hitting so it makes no sense that they didn't play him in the field" debate again. It's played out. You think it's all the same and extra activity doesn't mean anything, I don't. But can you see how trying to get him through 6-7 months of baseball games is different than trying to get him through 1-2 months of baseball games?

[jkcarew]

42 minutes ago, SoDakTwinsFan said:

We are here because the Twins thought it was a good idea to sign a very injury prone player who only had one good season to a long term contract.

Looks bad now, but at the time, I didn’t hate it. As I figured he’d be a great center fielder for 100 games a year and average to modestly above average hitter. (I too was apparently overly optimistic.)

But, to your point, Buxton has really NEVER had a good season. The only thing that could be called a ‘season’ was 2017, and only his defense was good that season. His entire career is a string of small sample results…including small sample ‘seasons’…ricocheting between phenomenal and completely awful…great when fly balls are going over the fence, and really bad when they aren’t. Making him what he’s always been…a dangerous, but overall only slightly above average hitter. The K’s and very low OBP were there from day 1, and have always been there.

 

[Woof Bronzer]

14 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I mean his current "ramping up" is some basic "baseball activities." Why bring up the hamstring? 

 

Because the hamstring is important to playing the field!  Seriously???

[roger]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

playing video games?

Thanks for a good smile, Mike.  I needed it today.

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Because the hamstring is important to playing the field!  Seriously???

His hamstring isn't going to be hurt anymore when he plays the field. This conversation is clearly not going to be productive. Literally every player in the history of professional sports "ramps up" while they're on the IL and start getting healthy. They do as much work as their body will allow them to do until they're fully healthy, then they go as hard as they can for a little while to get back in the flow of the game and take the field again at full health. The hamstring literally has no bearing on anything because they aren't going to play him anywhere, including as a DH, when he has an injured hamstring. What a wild argument.

[Woof Bronzer]

14 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

 

I'm not going to get into the "playing the outfield plus hitting is clearly the same thing as just hitting so it makes no sense that they didn't play him in the field" debate again. It's played out. You think it's all the same and extra activity doesn't mean anything, I don't. 

As I explained many, many times a few months ago, my belief was that, if he was too injured to play CF he was too injured to hit/run the bases and therefore playing him was detrimental to the team.  I'll let you evaluate his performance since then to determine whether or not I was right.

Now he's literally been on the IL for 3 weeks, and you're arguing that now is the time to INCREASE the physical toll on his body?

I am just so confused.  He's injured.  Shut him down.  

[Woof Bronzer]

 

4 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

The hamstring literally has no bearing on anything because they aren't going to play him anywhere, including as a DH, when he has an injured hamstring. 

Yeah it's almost like before significantly adding to his physical workload by asking him to play a position he hasn't played all year, they might want to make sure the hammy is fully healed.  Wild, indeed.

[Ted Schwerzler]

1 hour ago, SoDakTwinsFan said:

We are here because the Twins thought it was a good idea to sign a very injury prone player who only had one good season to a long term contract.

Yeah, that's not at all the issue.

[chpettit19]

18 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

As I explained many, many times a few months ago, my belief was that, if he was too injured to play CF he was too injured to hit/run the bases and therefore playing him was detrimental to the team.  I'll let you evaluate his performance since then to determine whether or not I was right.

Now he's literally been on the IL for 3 weeks, and you're arguing that now is the time to INCREASE the physical toll on his body?

I am just so confused.  He's injured.  Shut him down.  

His performance was terrible for a DH only and it absolutely hurt the team to keep hitting him in the heart of the order and clogging the DH spot for the kind of stats he was putting up. Maybe that's because he was hurting too much, maybe it was because he just couldn't adjust to the fulltime DH role (his explanation), or maybe he was just having a bad year (like Correa, unless you think he's hurt and should be shutdown, too?)

If 3 weeks of treatment and rest allowed him to get to the point where he has a chance to play some part-time CF for a month+, yes I'd absolutely argue they should increase the physical toll on his body. Would playing CF part-time for a month jeopardize part of his 2024 season? If it would then I wouldn't argue they should increase the physical toll on his body.

They don't have to try to get him through multiple months of games anymore so I think what they're willing to ask of him could/should change. If playing CF in May would've given him 2 months on the field and then he'd be done for the year I wouldn't have had that as my option A. But now getting 2 months out of him finishes the season so it would be my option A. Clearly you disagree. It happens.

[chpettit19]

7 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

 

Yeah it's almost like before significantly adding to his physical workload by asking him to play a position he hasn't played all year, they might want to make sure the hammy is fully healed.  Wild, indeed.

That's literally what I've said. They aren't going to play him if his hammy isn't healed. He's not starting a game tomorrow. He's continuing to receive treatment and work his activities up to the point where he's capable of playing in a game when his hammy is fully healed. You're the one suggesting they're going to be throwing him out there while his hammy is still hurt.

They aren't going to play him in CF if his hamstring is still hurt. They aren't going to DH him if his hamstring is still hurt. It's a completely separate thing than the knee and hip stuff that have kept him out of CF this year. It has no bearing in what to do with him when he returns because he won't return until it's not a factor.

We're taking over this thread and we clearly won't agree so I'm just going to stop the conversation right here.

[Woof Bronzer]

11 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

We're taking over this thread and we clearly won't agree so I'm just going to stop the conversation right here.

Agreed and apologies.  It's just a game, sorry to argue.  I just wish this team was better :)

[chpettit19]

2 minutes ago, Woof Bronzer said:

 I just wish this team was better :)

We agree there!

[Peter]

We need buxton for playoff drive!!! Definitely in September when games are going to matter. If he wax hurt all season long he should’ve said something in spring training. We can’t get down on the twins they are in first place and all hands on deck in needed for last month of season to win central division!