Passan: Buxton Willing To Waive No-Trade Clause

The Dodgers and Phillies will definitely have interest.

Depends on the deal.

He is our best player (not saying that much), but he is frequently injured as is VALUABLE.  His contract is modest and he gives another team great value.

I mentioned last night that a package of Buxton and Ryan/Lopez to the Mets should garner a huge young talent transfer to the Twins (and save our beloved owners a ton of $).

Personally, I love watching him play but if they are going to tear it down, let's do it.

This is a straight-up no confidence vote from Byron Buxton. He doesn't believe Falvey can build a contender in the time he has left on his contract. I think he's probably correct in that assessment.

Put yourself in Buxton's shoes. How excited are you to play another season with the Twins? At some point, for almost every major league athlete, one begins to crave a role on a team that is competitive. That ship sailed when the Twins failed to properly evaluate their roster and make proactive moves following the 2023 season. Buxton is the only Twins position player that has proven they can play at the MLB level. The rest of the team is pretty much speculative or hopeful of being average. I would be surprised if Byron has not had conversations with his family about this matter.

Passan may have heard something from someone but I doubt Buxton talked with him. Baseball has a protracted offseason and transactions are drawn out across the entire time. Thus writers, bloggers, and the like need to create material.

Naturally every Twins fan wants Buxton to remain a Minnesota Twin and have even better seasons each of the next three years. If you were Byron Buxton where would you want to play? 

A request by Byron to the Twins to trade him this offseason would rattle the front office. The main brains have been totally adverse to change. A Buxton trade would almost certainly necessitate further moves ..... except for the stubborn stance by someone. Maybe this is where the Pohlads can help the fans.

49 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Whelp. Brace for impact. Buxton is out. You don’t just casually announce news like this. 

This isn't casually being announced,  its Passan and who knows how good the sources are.   Is it a team that wants to trade for him.  

Honestly,  if someone wants to pay top dollar for Buxton I take that trade if Buxton is waiving his no trade clause.  Then you have the issue if he actually wants to be traded.  This is the most value Buxton has had since early in his career.   Roster construction is going to be an absolute mess.   

Do we truly burn it all down?  Pablo, Ryan, and Buxton - trade them all.    I thought they wanted to compete.  You trade those players you are throwing in the towel.   

16 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

A Buxton trade would almost certainly necessitate further moves 

It would force moves of Ryan, Lopez, Jeffers and Larnach at a minimum. Bailey Ober and Royce Lewis would be the two highest paid players remaining as the payroll heads below $50M. Actually - Carlos Correa would be the highest paid player on the team since they're paying him $11.3M to play for Houston. The Pohlads should easily clear $100M in profit if that happens.

5 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

I thought they wanted to compete.  You trade those players you are throwing in the towel.   

The current roster will only compete with the Chicago White Sox. Years of sitting out the offseason, more or less, and the struggles of development has left the team with an unbalanced roster. The pitching staff is fine. Who is going to hit or catch the ball? There are opportunities to improve. We can only hope.

1 hour ago, bunsen82 said:

This isn't casually being announced,  its Passan and who knows how good the sources are.   Is it a team that wants to trade for him.  

Honestly,  if someone wants to pay top dollar for Buxton I take that trade if Buxton is waiving his no trade clause.  Then you have the issue if he actually wants to be traded.  This is the most value Buxton has had since early in his career.   Roster construction is going to be an absolute mess.   

Do we truly burn it all down?  Pablo, Ryan, and Buxton - trade them all.    I thought they wanted to compete.  You trade those players you are throwing in the towel.   

If you are trading one of those 3, you might as well trade them all and have a $60 million payroll I guess. 

I HATE this.  But, I expect this is music to the Pohlads ears.  Another way to save money and get cheap replacements who may never pan out to be half as good as Buck.

Sounds like a great way to alienate a generation of fans who are just starting to get into baseball back in 2023, and even those of us who have been around and supporting the team for decades.

Money over everything else.

And no, I don't blame Buxton if this is true.  How can I expect him to want to play for this team when as a fan with no skin in the game can barely want to watch this team - especially if he were playing for someone else.

Sickening.

Not a surprise at all.  Buxton has played 2 "full" seasons out of like 10 or 11 years.  He's been very dedicated and worked his butt off.  I think the Twins owe him the opportunity to play for a contender at this stage of his career.  His remaining 3 years on his contract pay him 15 mil per year for a total of 45 mil.  Most teams have no issue with that.  If that is what Buxton wants I think the Twins should accommodate him.  

My guess is that Buxton is "willing to waive" the no-trade clause means that Falvey and Buxton have discussed the possibility and have agreed that any deal has to be beneficial to both team and player;

Falvey has to get a good return first, even then if Buxton doesn't want to go to that team - no deal.

Buxton picks a team he wants to go to if they can't meet Falvey's request - no deal. Other team sweetens the pot, but asks for more players from Twins that Falvey doesn't want to part with - no deal.

Nothing to see hear other than that the national sports media doesn't think that smaller market teams should have nice toys...

9 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

My guess is that Buxton is "willing to waive" the no-trade clause means that Falvey and Buxton have discussed the possibility and have agreed that any deal has to be beneficial to both team and player;

Falvey has to get a good return first, even then if Buxton doesn't want to go to that team - no deal.

Buxton picks a team he wants to go to if they can't meet Falvey's request - no deal. Other team sweetens the pot, but asks for more players from Twins that Falvey doesn't want to part with - no deal.

Nothing to see hear other than that the national sports media doesn't think that smaller market teams should have nice toys...

 

 

No it actually means a trade is possible - before Buxton was an absolute no.  He wanted to stay a Twin.  Now that he is considering it is similar to Correa this summer.  Once you think on it and say yes, the probability goes up immensely.  Then it only matters if someone is willing to meet the value chart per se.   

Honestly, this might be for the best.  The way this team is currently structured, they aren't going to be anywhere near the playoffs. 

I've enjoyed watching Buxton play but he's coming off one of his best overall seasons and his value will likely never be higher.  He's consistently injured and expecting him to replicate this previous season is like expecting to win the lottery.

If they can trade him, Lopez, and Ryan for AA, AAA, and MLB ready players - quality over quantity - that could be great.  The Mets would be the first team I'd call and ask about McLean, Benge, and Tong.