Otto von Ballpark

Well, I specifically said it wasn't so much about the official grievance (which I think Buxton would lose), but the reaction of fans and players. And it's precisely my point that service time manipulation usually doesn't come in many forms -- it's almost always about delaying a rookie's debut. Every team does that. But I'd guess Chief is right, that not every team would do this to Buxton -- just based on his career results so far, the Cubs or other big spending teams probably don't value the extra year of Buxton now anywhere near that of rookie Bryant. So you're probably only looking at the more frugal teams that might do this. And then there are simple veteran/clubhouse communication issues. And a team that is more confident / has a track record of negotiating fair long-term contracts might not feel the need either.

Just another thought on this -- are we sure the front office is really being forthcoming / transparent, or do they realize their individual reasons probably seem bogus and they have to throw everything out there hoping something sticks? I mean, the health thing seems suspicious right now -- he was healthy enough to play at AAA, after all. Bringing up his performance would be at best moving goalposts from what they said in July. Saying there's no playing time for Buxton, particular with Rosario out, seems ridiculous. Levine also said they still view him as an everyday player and didn't want to give him less playing time than that -- but of course, sending him home is giving him even less playing time. Plus Molitor said it's an open competition, which implies he wouldn't need everyday playing time anyway. It's not too hard to justify keeping a guy off the 25-man roster, but in the context of expanded rosters, each of these reasons, or even combinations thereof, are not particularly convincing. The Brewers didn't try to justify keeping Hardy off their expanded rosters; rookies Dozier and Hicks had much more compelling cases for being sent home in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Also worth remembering that Falvey seemed to deny the service time factor a couple days before Levine admitted it.

Worth noting that in one of the more famous "veteran" service time manipulations -- JJ Hardy in 2009 -- he still got called up Sep. 1st when rosters expanded. It must be pretty rare to send home a veteran, healthy enough to play, who's already on the 40-man roster in September.

There are more differences than that. Those examples were all players who hadn't yet played in MLB, thus weren't union members, thus weren't on the 40-man roster with at least some expectation they'd be called up when rosters expanded. You may not particularly care about those differences, but they exist. I don't think they will matter from an official grievance standpoint, but Buxton, fans, and the rest of the Twins clubhouse might react differently here than they would to, say, Royce Lewis getting the Kris Bryant treatment in April 2020.

I think he is saying, the Twins could have bought the extra year regardless (in the form of an extension), but they weren't willing to pay the price.

His arb award was probably going to be in the $1 mil range regardless, so any change really wouldn't be significant anyway.

If Mauer is splitting 1B/DH with a guy like Morrison or Austin, it looks pretty much the same, except with your utility infielder in place of Sano at 3B. Admittedly it might make it hard to roster a non-1B DH like, say, Nelson Cruz. Although a guy like Donaldson could probably still fit.

I don't know about that. Maybe they wanted to option him a few weeks into the season, when he went on the DL with migraines instead? I don't think they rushed him back from the broken toe for service time reasons -- it was probably bad reasons, but not related to service time. When they finally optioned him on July 2nd, perhaps they did have some intent to recall him once his bat warmed up, and the wrist thing changed their mind. They could have communicated that better before Sep. 1st, though -- he injured his wrist on July 12, and then again on July 30. There was plenty of time for them to lower (or remove) expectations for a 2018 return, publicly and privately. Buxton is arbitration eligible this offseason, so they will exchange figures. Maybe the Twins should just agree to whatever Buxton's side submits (within reason)? I don't know about Twinsfest, but hopefully it doesn't impact Buxton's work over the offseason. While I would hope that Buxton wouldn't let that happen, it's also up to the front office to read their players well enough to avoid those outcomes where possible. (To their credit, they seemed to handle Sano well in June.)

I agree that I don't think it will be a huge issue down the road, but it's got the potential to linger for a bit. It's not even ultimately about the money (which renders the Correa joke irrelevant). Seems to be that the front office said his bat needs to warm up at AAA before he would be recalled, and by all accounts Buxton worked hard to get to that point -- but then the front office suddenly changed the requirements for his recall on Sep. 1. They are totally within their rights to do that, it might even be the smart course of action for the franchise -- but it's also their job to communicate these things better. It's not surprising that Buxton and other players would be frustrated by this, as well as fans.

This must be an attempt at a joke? Otherwise it's bad info. Correa agreed to that bonus before the Astros drafted him. The Astros probably wouldn't have drafted him 1-1 if he had demanded a significantly higher bonus. It's not even remotely analogous to the Buxton situation. Correa is playing year-to-year with an eye towards free agency, like a lot of players do, but it has nothing to do with his 2012 draft bonus.

Worth remembering that Perkins' service time issue was only the difference between "Super-2" arbitration status and not being arbitration eligible. So it was entirely short-term cash, with no extra year of control involved. Maybe a little easier to patch over, or even to quickly forgive/forget? Also, Perkins pitched 96 innings that year, so he was way ahead of Buxton's opportunities this year. Perkins' specific complaint was that they activated him from the DL and optioned him in September 2009, when he felt like he may not have been fully healthy (in which case he should have stayed on the DL and continued collecting service time). Once he had his second medical opinion, and his grievance was settled, it could have been water under the bridge. By comparison, Buxton's probably feeling a bit misled from when the front office publicly said his bat needed to warm up before they would recall him. Especially when the option was based on relatively few healthy 2018 PAs to begin with. And the practical results of this decision -- delaying his free agency -- are going to linger for awhile.

Actually, Buxton's wrist issue came up around the trade deadline too. Shutting him down then would have almost certainly caused less consternation, simply because it would have been sharing the spotlight. Not to mention that his bat had not warmed up yet, which is a big source of the confusion now. Also, I think the trade deadline angst would have been dissipated if they had traded someone at the beginning of July when they were 12 games back, or otherwise communicated they were shifting gears. Some of that is understandable publicly, but it could have been dealt with better privately. The manager and players should not learn the club is sellers from a TV in the clubhouse. Actually those same communication issues are probably at the root of the Buxton situation now, where the public statements said his bat had to warm up before they'd recall him, and it did -- and then the parameters of the recall suddenly seemed to change. They should have laid the groundwork for this decision, publicly and to Buxton and the clubhouse, by July 2nd when they optioned him, or later in the month when the wrist injury flared up. (If not simply shut him down upon the latter event.) Instead we can clearly see a player who is upset, a clubhouse which is confused, and a GM throwing a bunch of reasons against the wall to see what sticks. (I still think the wrist is not the highest concern right now -- he wouldn't be playing on it at all in late August if it was serious enough to warrant a September shutdown. Getting ample time off as he worked his way back was prudent, and it certainly made it difficult to recall him before Sep. 1st, but isn't really a concern after rosters expand.)

I don't think so. Wrist issues aren't new for him, I think a shutdown then would have passed without much angst. Especially with a "Ft. Myers" type action plan. Most folks were already shrugging it off as a lost season by then (for Buxton and for the Twins as a team). The messaging gets super-clouded when you let him play through it at AAA, he plays fairly well, and then you try to revive the "lost season" framing on Sep. 1st.

I think it's fair to temper expectations for Cave, but there's room for them both to play this September. The Twins can justify the decision enough in terms of defeating a grievance, but Levine saying there's no room for Buxton right now still sounds a little ridiculous.

I don't think Buxton would win a grievance. But just inviting a grievance is probably a failure of timing/communication on the Twins part. (See my post above citing their rationale for his July 2nd option.)

.901 OPS, .220 ISO since he was optioned, and his rehab ended. So he wasn't just slapping singles around. 6.1% BB%, 27.3% K%, which isn't great but is pretty much in line with expectations. I can definitely see the case for leaving him down / not recalling him, but I also think the Twins messaging on this has been a little scattershot. They did better explaining the Sano to Ft Myers thing. Here's an article about his July 2nd option: "The Twins have repeatedly said they will leave him there until he gets his bat going." http://m.startribune.com/twins-take-byron-buxton-off-dl-but-he-stays-in-rochester-jorge-polanco-returns/487174841/ I think they would have been better off publicly setting a higher threshold for his recall, and/or just shutting him down when the wrist problem came up.

FWIW, since he was optioned on July 2nd, Buxton had a 151 wRC+ at AAA. 27.3% K rate, compared to his career AAA rate of 26.8%. And both were trending better: since coming off the minor league DL on August 14th, 181 wRC+ and 23.6% K%. Obviously nothing to suggest a MLB breakout was imminent or anything, but also not the kind of performance that usually gets sent home in September either.

Well, usually a player doesn't have to bet on health to keep collecting service time. You can't option an injured player to the minors. I understand the feeling that the Twins may not have deployed "plan B" in an entirely good faith way, considering Buxton has only had 43 healthy PA since those extension talks, and they may have asked him to play through an injury which may have led to him getting optioned in the first place. And of course, he was ostensibly back to full health and performing to his usual standards at AAA when the latest part of the Twins "plan B" was implemented.

Well, it has been reported a few places as a "shut down" with the implication that he wasn't going to play in the last 2 Rochester games anyway. (Which makes sense, it would have been bad optics to cite health for the lack of recall, but then continue to play him in Rochester.) And I haven't seen anything to suggest he left without permission.

Most with previous extensive MLB experience -- that's what I meant, sorry. I know guys like Lewis Thorpe aren't, typically.

There were no more bus rides. The Red Wings were already back at home for their last 2 games when Buxton was allowed to leave. And he was given a different choice only because the team had put him in a different spot -- 40-man players (edit to add: with extensive previous MLB experience) are customarily either called up on Sep. 1, or informed they will be called up when the minor league season ends. They told Buxton that neither of those would apply to him, so they gave him the option to go home early.

It certainly wasn't clickbait. It was a reasonable and imminent concern worthy of fan discussion.

If Buxton is that far behind Cave, he's probably not part of your opening day 2019 outfield anyway, in which case, there's no service time reason to send him home now. Couldn't you recall him to take a few at bats from Field/Grossman/etc this month, and avoid this whole weird mess? You don't need to send Buxton home now to communicate that he needs to earn his starting job back. There's a ton of guys on the Twins roster right now working to earn future jobs -- Buxton could be one of them.

It's tricky, though. Not much has changed since last offseason -- a handful of bad PA, some injuries, his usual AAA performance once he got back. At least Sano got a few healthy months before he got the Ft Myers treatment.

Buxton was bad, but it was only 94 PA total. And of that, only 43 were healthy (with a .476 OPS). The last 51 PA of .303 OPS came when trying to play through a broken toe.