Byron Buxton Is Back In Twins' Lineup Following Hip Injury

[Steve Drumwright]

 

Just in time for a push before the trade deadline, Buck is back.

The Minnesota Twins on Monday activated All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton from the 10-day injured list and optioned infielder Tristan Gray to Triple-A St. Paul.

Buxton had been out since going on the IL July 7 with a strained right hip, the same ailment that kept him out for four games that week. Now, Buxton rejoins the Twins after being out for nearly two weeks and will be in the lineup Monday as Minnesota opens a big four-game series on the road against the Cleveland Guardians, who are in second place in the AL Central, just three games ahead of the Twins and one game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox.

Buxton is slashing .271/.328/.575 with 25 homers, which ranks eighth in MLB, and 45 RBIs. Buxton, who has a lengthy injury history, hit a career-high 35 homers last year.

Gray has been a valuable defensive piece on the infield, seeing quite a bit of time at shortstop, but has a slash line of just .232/.271/.333 with four homers and 29 RBIs. This likely opens the door for Ryan Kreidler to see a bulk of the time at shortstop and Brooks Lee backing him up.

 

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[Punto4President]

So basically the Twins traded Gray for Buxton?  We may have already won the trade deadline!

[mickster]

26 minutes ago, Punto4President said:

So basically the Twins traded Gray for Buxton?  We may have already won the trade deadline!

but we still have Gray if we need to bring him back up

[CRF]

48 minutes ago, Steve Drumwright said:

Gray has been a valuable defensive piece on the infield

What? The guy has hands of stone! I'm not sure what his "value" is, but I know it's not on defense. 

[MMBoys93]

Didn’t think they’d send Gray down but happy they did. Lee and Gray are equally poor at SS. Obviously need a backup SS but that can just be Lee especially since about every guy on the roster can play 2B in a pinch. 

[jkcarew]

Since Buxton became the permanent “every-day” starting center fielder at the beginning of the 2016 season:

Twins starting center fielders in lineup…

978 games (and counting) - someone not named Byron Buxton…btw, someone should make a list of these guys

640 games (39.6%) - Byron Buxton

If he started 338 consecutive games in CF…basically every game through the end of the 2028 season, he’d just break 50%.

11 seasons. And yet, from a personnel standpoint, the org has gone into almost (if we give them credit for MAT) every one of those seasons somehow expecting Buxton to be the answer in CF. Mind-boggling.

[LA Vikes Fan]

Good to see Buxton back in the lineup and I applaud them sending down Gray rather than the Roden. This will really help against the three left-handed starters I think we face this week.

[Riverbrian]

Gonna be tight on the dirt. 

 

 

[SD happy]

2 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Gonna be tight on the dirt. 

 

 

Yes, it will. But, I’m guessing the short term plan is Lee backs up short, Lewis backs up third, Clemens backs up first and Kueschal backs up second. Tight but doable.

[Linus]

2 hours ago, CRF said:

What? The guy has hands of stone! I'm not sure what his "value" is, but I know it's not on defense. 

Yea I’m guessing we will never read that again.