Across the Meadow: The Buxton Saga

 

 If I’m a free agent, I want no part of coming here. More importantly, if I’m a prospect, I’m walking on eggshells.

 

Really? I think this is a huge overreaction. Buxton's a career .230 hitter who can't hit an MLB curveball. And the FO ain't gonna play him because he can't put the bat on the ball.

 

The Twins are saying they'll play a guy based on results, not hype.

 

I'm curious how you think he's a phony?  In part, I think the optics look bad because of how open and honest the FO was with the public about the move.  I'm not sure they are phonys, whether you agree with the decision or not.  They were awfully candid about their reasoning IMO.

It's not like many other teams haven't considered service time when making decisions, and players still sign with those teams.  I think everyone, including Buxton, should look at the amount of his controlled service time that got burned while he played horribly.

Edited September 3, 2018 by jimmer

 

Really? I think this is a huge overreaction. Buxton's a career .230 hitter who can't hit an MLB curveball. And the FO ain't gonna play him because he can't put the bat on the ball.

 

The Twins are saying they'll play a guy based on results, not hype.

Have you ever checked Fields results?

I agree with the front office on this one.  Buxton has not earned a call up at this point.  With the injuries and lack of results, starting the off season training for him is the right call.  Let him go to Florida or Georgia and work on things and get healthy.  Yes, he hit well later, but the remainder of the year was a disaster.  Not enough to call him up.  Also, I think the extra year of service is worth the risk at this point.

 

If he develops, we can try to sign him to a long term deal.  If he won't sign because of this, then we QO him and take the draft pick and move on or trade him while his value is high.  At this point, his value is so low that if we tried to trade him, we would get very little back.  I think it's a good, long-term, team decision.  Nothing wrong with that.

The impact of free agents coming here? Money usually wins out. Tehre are only so many jobs that pay x-amount of dollars. Sometimes you overpay. But, if you want a quality stopper, often the combination of money with a successful team will win out.

 

As the Twins try and sign free agents next year, I would be more troubled that most all of their free agent signings were for trade bait. What makes this a positive at that someone could get traded to a more competitive team that didn't seem like in the hunt in the of-season,  But you also fear that o-=ffield management and the players that surround you might keep your stats and future earning power at a lull.

 

Remember, Perkins was once removed from the 40-man. He stayed and did well. Sure, Buxton's agent is mad because it has delayed a bigger payday. But so many factors enter into that big payday. Most important, actual production. How many players make their start at age 22, or 24, or 24-26. There are the special players, and we pretty much thought Buxton was one (as was Aaron Hicks). But a player needs to be more worried about NOT getting thru the arbitration years without raises (which means you bounce around to teams thinking you have potential). 

 

What is interesting in the long line of centerfielders the Twins have run thru since the leave of Hunter. Span, Gomez, Revere, Hicks. Will Buxton be added to the mix? Will that be his carer cycle? Great glove for a few years. Maybe an okay hitter, with a spurt at some point that gets him a bigger-than-the-norm contract>

 

Right now, he has to worry about getting his head and body together to reclaim an outfield  job in 2019.

 

 

Dunno. Maybe cuz they’ve been actual baseball players longer than Falveys been... well anything. We all drank the cool aid cuz he wasn’t TR 2.0. So far Falveys getting his ass kicked by 1.0

 

But what does their opinion mean in front office decision? Does someone who played in the big leagues automatically become qualified to be in the front office?

 

Trust me, Falvine have a lot to prove still and the jury is very much out with their leadership, I agree on that but your example was lacking.

 

Have you ever checked Fields results?

I don't know what side of the Buxton argument I'm on but I haven't seen anyone happy that Field is up so I'm not sure I get bringing him up. No one wants Field here no matter how they feel about the Buxton situation.

 

Well at least no one but the front office wants Field here, but you get the point.

 

I also don't fault Buxton for feeling misled this season. Every decision the FO made with him was systematically calculated to keep his service time below 3 years.

 

Did they systematically injure him multiple times over?

 

This is horrible optics for the FO, no other way to put it. If I’m a free agent, I want no part of coming here. More importantly, if I’m a prospect, I’m walking on eggshells.

I respect the Twins Daily’s writers quite a bit, but all but one or two of you actually supported your grading with reasoning. Even the incompletes seemed to be copping out a bit.

Is anyone else concerned that Falvey is a flat out phony that most likely doesn’t know a damn thing about baseball? Scary times for this Twins fan.

 

Ha - so you're saying to Twins will continue to not sign any free agents worth a crap?  Money will always win out, and we know that the Twins tend to not be playing with the high spenders.

 

The Cubs recently played this game with Kris Bryant, and it didn't seem to have much of a long term impact

In my extremely disappointed opinion, I have always thought they would find a way to get rid of Sano and Buxton before they were owed their big payday. It also seems they have a hard time working with the Latino players.  Dozier got a pass all season long with the wait until the 2nd half.  Kepler has not been good.  Cave is "okay" hitting but his fielding is not even good.  They kept Morrison forever.  He finally "got an injury".  They have been extremely tough on Santana but Gibson got about 5 years of passes.  Grossman is okay but not a great player.  We no longer have any great players.  We have Rosario (very good) and Berrios (could be a Cy Young). Seems more than likely something will mess them up too. 

 

Really? I think this is a huge overreaction. Buxton's a career .230 hitter who can't hit an MLB curveball. And the FO ain't gonna play him because he can't put the bat on the ball.

 

The Twins are saying they'll play a guy based on results, not hype.

 

230 would not be so bad. The league has learned how to pitch him and he is going to have a tough time getting above the Mendoza line if he does not figure it out. There would be little or at least much less made of this if there was no a year of control hanging in the balance. The team has given him a great deal of time at the ML league level (service time) while he has been completely inept at the plate. I can appreciate the extra year could cost Byron several million dollars, assuming he gets it together. However, he was also promoted rapidly and kept at the ML level while batting exceptionally poorly so he should consider that service time was increased to his benefit.