Otto von Ballpark

I would hope so. They sort of did it in 2006 with Perkins, although we really needed starters for those playoffs, not relievers. (Perkins relieved Brad Radke in our elimination game that year -- and it would turn out to be Perk's only career postseason appearance.) They could have done it in 2010 with Gibson, but didn't. (Traded Ramos for Capps instead?) They sort of did it with Trevor May in 2015, although they waffled on it in August. They also passed on doing it with Berrios that year. The new front office hasn't had many chances yet. I suppose they could have tried it with Fernando Romero last year? Or even this year -- they sent Romero down right around the same time they added Belisle to the pen.

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.

Worth remembering that the league batting average has dropped again, to .252 for non-pitchers -- down 7 points from last year, and at its lowest levels since 1972/1968. (As recently as 2007 it was still .272, 20 points higher than the current mark.) So Goodrum and Palka are still below average in that mark, but not by that much. Fangraphs pegs them both as roughly league average hitters overall (98 and 102 wRC+, respectively).

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.)

2015 didn't count, because he spent fewer than 20 days on optional assignment.

Kohl Stewart wasn't eligible for minor league free agency. I think that is a big difference.

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.

I don't think a Buxton-led package gets an ace right now.

Well, the Twins declined to give him a 40-man spot, so I think "cut" is a fair shorthand. We had his exclusive rights, and he didn't make the cut. Functionally it is pretty much the same as a non-tender, which we commonly call a cut.

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.

I wouldn't say I am not including this factor. They absolutely can and should work with him this offseason. I just don't know if it makes a difference whether that offseason is 5 months long or 4 months long.