Byron Buxton Will Participate in the Home Run Derby in Atlanta

In addition to being named an All-Star reserve outfielder Sunday, Byron Buxton received an invitation from the league to participate in next week's Home Run Derby at Truist Park in the suburbs outside Atlanta. For Buxton, the second-time All-Star who will be playing before a home crowd in his native state, that was too good a chance to miss.

"When you're healthy, and you have the opportunity come across to be able to do things like this, you don't pass them up," Buxton told reporters in a conference call Sunday. "And just having conversations with everybody that needed to know and that was important to me, it was something that I wanted to do, and they supported me plenty."

Few players who receive the honor of an All-Star selection are less likely to take it for granted than Buxton. Despite his status as a former No. 2 overall pick and one of the top prospects in the game before his debut, he's intimately familiar with the ways the game can dangle your talent before you, holding it just out of reach. He's the kind of player who could make the trip to the annual exhibition almost every year, but injuries stunted his development at several points and have stopped him from showcasing his talent for much of his decade-long career.

To overcome that in a season that offers the chance to play in a national event before his local people is especially exciting for Buxton, whose family has grown since he was last given this chance—and who will be able to enjoy a break back home even while embracing the hoopla of All-Star Week.

"It means a lot. I think the biggest thing for me is, the last time I went to the game, as far as family-wise, there were four of us, and we didn't have any kids," he reflected. "So being able to make it back, with my whole family this time, is very special—and to do it back home, with this Twins uniform on, it's a blessing. Everybody doesn't get to play as many years as I did, and to be able to do it with the Twins and know I'm gonna do it with the Twins every year I make it, is something special to me and my family."

The tenacious pride he takes in representing his team should seize the attention of fans, as much as his affable attempts to deflect attention from himself. If there were any lingering questions about whether he would accept a trade to any other team this summer, comments like the above should put them to rest. Buxton has made a true home in the Twin Cities, too. That he has put down such meaningful roots in Minnesota, in a way, compounds the special feeling of returning to his roots in the South for this occasion.

"Going back home to do something like this, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," he said. "I know I'm not gonna play 30 more years for it to come back to Atlanta, so it's that once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. I talked about it with some close people, some guys on the team, some friends, family, everybody got excited. It's one of those things where, they didn't want me to pass up this opportunity."

With the combination of an unbroken body and an unbroken string of everyday at-bats, Buxton has steadily worked his way into greater consistency and power production over the last two seasons. This year, he's slugging .544, and his 20 home runs put him easily on pace to best his career high of 28. Better yet, he's done it largely while tamping down the massive strikeout rate that came with his previous high in 2022. He's a more well-rounded slugger than ever. Rocco Baldelli said the change to his overall offensive game has been real and tangible this year, and perhaps is a product of simply being able to get into a daily routine.

"It is true. You're not gonna be able to put in as much work if you're battling things," Baldelli said, at the end of the team's last homestand. "He's been able to get a full day's work pregame, and then play in the game, pretty much every day this year. I think that definitely can take your game to different places."

That's included more walks, more stolen bases, and a greater usage of the opposite field. It's also meant hitting the ball hard more often, even with a slightly more compact swing than he's used in the past. He'll get to put all of that on full display next week. His ability to hit genuine moonshots has never been in doubt, and he's displayed it more often than ever this year.

His children are especially excited. Buxton is not one to clamor for (or, sometimes, even to accept) the spotlight, but his family's exhortations and the chance to embrace both his family's home and his adopted one at once will make next week unique and wonderful for him. For Twins fans, amid a season of aggravation and with the trade deadline hanging over everything like a dark cloud, Buxton—loudly asserting that his place is this one, playing the best baseball of his illustrious career, and getting to show off what he can do on ESPN—remains the warm ray of sunlight.