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There is no question that Byron Buxton's performance has been disappointing during the 2023 season. With fewer than 40 games remaining, the Twins might have one option: a return to center field. Image courtesy of Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports Byron Buxton was placed on the IL in early August with a right hamstring strain. Early last week, head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta told reporters that Buxton had resumed baseball activities, and his next step was to begin running progressions. The Twins have avoided sending Buxton on a rehab assignment this season, but it sounds like he won't avoid a St. Paul trip with his current injury. "Byron is getting back into baseball activities at this point in time," Paparesta said. "Obviously, him getting back into baseball activity is a good sign. Throwing, hitting, taking some ground balls and stuff, which is good." Minnesota's plan in spring training was to start Byron Buxton as the team's everyday designated hitter and eventually move him back to center field. Initially, the Twins likely hoped his knee would improve during the season so the club could use him in the outfield. Unfortunately, there has been little improvement with his knee, and he's also dealt with back issues and his current hamstring problem. Injuries have been part of Buxton's entire professional career, which can be frustrating for all parties involved. Buxton's time at DH has allowed him to appear in 85 games in 2023, but his offensive performance is below his recent standard. He has hit .207/.294/.438 (.731) with 17 doubles, one triple, 17 home runs, and a 109-to-35 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His 99 OPS+ is his lowest total since 2018. This OPS+ is low for an everyday DH, but it would be an acceptable total for an everyday centerfielder with elite defensive skills. His below-average performance is pushing the Twins to move him back to the outfield. In mid-July, Thad Levine talked about Buxton's outfield work in an interview with Cory Provus. He said, "Behind the scenes right now, we are doing a lot of defensive work, so when that time comes, we don't say we need three weeks to ramp him up. There are some things being done on a daily basis to help position him to be able to go out there when he is ready." Levine's quote also aligns with Paparesta's plan outlined above, which includes throwing and taking ground balls. The Twins also have better-performing DH options currently on the roster. Royce Lewis' return from the IL has left the team with one more infielder than positions on the field. Jorge Polanco and Edouard Julien can both see time at DH and second base. Carlos Correa has also been fighting plantar fasciitis, and some time away from shortstop might help his performance. Ryan Jeffers has been one of the team's best hitters in the second half and has started to get time at DH on days when he isn't behind the plate. Matt Wallner is another young bat that is tough to keep out of the line-up, and using him at DH helps to improve the roster. Minnesota's best-performing team includes Buxton in center field, playing at a high level. Twins fans saw this from him during his All-Star performance in the first half of 2022. Buxton posted an OPS over 1.060 in April and June on his way to being named the AL's starting center fielder. It's hard to argue what that would mean to the line-up if the Twins could glimpse that player in the season's final month. The Twins' playoff losing streak has stretched to 18 games, so winning in October is the easiest way to stop some negativity surrounding the team. Depending on the playoff match-up, Minnesota's best line-up puts Buxton in center field, but there are other injury concerns to sort out before the postseason. On paper, the positions below seem like the best way for the Twins to end their October woes. C: Ryan Jeffers 1B: Alex Kirilloff 2B: Jorge Polanco SS: Carlos Correa 3B: Royce Lewis LF: Matt Wallner CF: Byron Buxton RF: Max Kepler DH: Edouard Julien If Buxton had performed well at DH, there would be less reason to push him back to center field. Instead, his offensive streakiness will force the Twins to make a decision. For better or worse, Buxton will return to center field before the season ends. Should the Twins keep Buxton at DH? What is the best Twins line-up for October? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. View full article

The Twins entered the 2023 season hoping for better health after an injury-filled 2022 campaign. Byron Buxton’s usage was part of that plan, but the results have been disastrous. Image courtesy of Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports Entering the 2023 season, the Twins hired Nick Paparesta as the team’s head athletic trainer, hoping he could help the club with some of their injury woes. Injuries were one of the team’s unfortunate storylines during the 2022 season, and it was a primary reason the club finished in third place in the AL Central. The club ranked second in the big leagues with 2,363 player-days lost to the injured list, including 19 players on the IL to finish the season. One of the players on the injured list to end the year was Byron Buxton, and injuries have impacted his performance throughout his professional career. In September, Buxton underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to clean up the joint that caused him lingering issues throughout the 2022 season. The team hoped he’d be ready by spring training at the time of the surgery, but things didn’t play out that way. Buxton entered spring training needing to be ramped up slowly to avoid any potential setbacks. His first appearance in a minor league game came just two weeks before Opening Day, and it was becoming more apparent that the Twins needed a different plan for 2023. On March 21st, the Twins announced Buxton would open the season as the team’s everyday designated hitter. Multiple reasons existed for the team to make this decision, including he was continuing to build up from his off-season knee surgery, and colder weather in the season’s early weeks can impact players. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters that Buxton was “doing great” physically, but the club viewed this as a plan to keep Buxton in the line-up as much as possible. For the most part, Buxton has been regularly available, but there are many more layers to the team’s plan at this point in the season. He has yet to play a defensive inning in center field, and the team has repeatedly said that Buxton is no closer to playing in the outfield. In the middle of July, Thad Levine mentioned that Buxton was doing a lot of defensive work “behind the scenes” to help ramp up before returning to the field. It seemed like a light might be at the end of the tunnel, but the light has started to fade. The Twins placed Buxton on the injured list on August 4th with a strained right hamstring. Minnesota plans to reevaluate Buxton after a two-week shutdown and ramp him up again. It was his second IL stint of the season after being hit in the ribs earlier in the year. He’s played in 85 of the team’s first 114 games, but he’s likely out until the end of August or the beginning of September. His goal last season was to play in 100 games, and he fell eight games short of that mark. Now, he’s in danger of falling short of the century mark again. For the most part, Buxton has lived up to the team’s plan regarding availability, but ongoing knee issues have hampered his performance. In 85 games, he has hit .207/.294/.438 (.731) with 17 doubles, 17 home runs, and a 99 OPS+. Buxton hasn’t posted an OPS+ below 115 since the 2018 season. Strong returns from injury were one of Buxton’s exceptional abilities in previous seasons, which might point to more significant injury issues this season. His health hasn’t improved even without playing in the field, making his injury situation frustrating for everyone involved with the Twins. The Twins faced a no-win situation with Buxton and his health in 2023. Minnesota could have thrown him into the outfield on Opening Day and hoped for the best. However, that likely would have bothered his chronic knee issues and put him on the IL earlier in the season. Some fans will continue to call for the Twins to use Buxton in the outfield even when he returns from his current IL stint. It’s looking more like that won’t be possible in 2023, and the club will need to formulate an alternate plan for 2024 and beyond. Should the Twins have done something different with Buxton this season? What should the team’s plan be for next year? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. View full article

Over the years, Minnesota Twins fans have seen Byron Buxton go from a player that the organization wanted to beat out ground balls to among the best talents in the game. The only problem is that his availability has been limited along the way. What if this is where that ends? Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports Let’s first start by relieving pressure from new trainer Nick Paparesta. I don’t think anyone in the Twins organization views him as a savior of sorts, but there is no denying that his addition comes on the heels of a 2022 that saw a ridiculous amount of injury. Introducing new training techniques, the hope for Minnesota would be that players remain on the field more. No one is more important in that endeavor than Byron Buxton. On April 7, the Twins seventh game of the season in 2022, Buxton led off the game with a double against the Boston Red Sox. When sliding into second base, he jammed his knee, pounded his fist, and it looked as though his season may be over. Surprisingly, he missed just six games and returned on April 21 against the Kansas City Royals. Two days later, against the Chicago White Sox, he was 4-for-4 with a homer and looked like a superhero. The problem was that he never felt the same. Routinely, Buxton found himself on the trainer’s table. He was getting fluid drained from his knee frequently. There was fear of infection. There were countless hours of rehab. In short, the superstar from Baxley, Georgia, was doing his best impression to look like the Superman from Smallville, Kansas. From the point he injured the knee against the Red Sox through his ultimate shutdown in August, Buxton played 85 games for the Twins. A good portion of those came as a designated hitter, attempting to keep his bat in the lineup while removing some pressure from his legs. Unfortunately, that also substantially saps the value such a great defender brings to the field, and Buxton had to feel less than ideal by providing only half of his value. Getting into a total of 92 games last season, something Buxton noted as the most he’s played in since 2017, the Twins saw him produce 4.0 fWAR. On a per game basis, he has been right there with the likes of Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, or Paul Goldschmidt. The question for years has not been whether the talent was real, but how often it could matter. Turning the page to 2023, Minnesota is hoping the fluke injuries end. There is no way to predict a knee going into the ground harshly on a slide. A hit by pitch shouldn’t always break a hand, and a dive forward into grass shouldn’t always result in a concussion. There was a time that Buxton’s style of play put him in harm's way, but even there Minnesota has worked to keep their talent healthy. Looking at projections for the upcoming season, Fangraphs’ Steamer has Buxton launching 32 homers across 130 games. Last season, he put up 28 in just 92 games. ZiPS projections have the Twins centerfielder at 22 home runs, but that system has him registering just 90 games. The total could conceivably be somewhere in the middle, but if Buxton plays anywhere close to 130 games, he may double the 3.6 fWAR seen for him in that time by Steamer. As a whole, baseball does a poor job marketing its stars. Trout is hidden in Los Angeles as is his teammate Shohei Ohtani. The East Coast teams often get their due, and Mookie Betts has recently been the darling of the Dodgers. Although Minnesota will never be on that level, for Buxton to be in any national conversations, he must remain on the field. Fans wanting to see what that looks like over a near-162 games could be treated to something special. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have put a strong foot forward for Rocco Baldelli with this club. Carlos Correa is here to stay. Byron Buxton being healthy and amazing is something everyone is waiting to present itself. View full article

Of course, it’s the beginning of January and hope springs eternal. Maybe that sentiment is more traditionally reserved for Spring Training, but the dead of winter needs some heat in Twins Territory. An offseason ago the front office paid the man, now in 2023 it’s time to watch Byron Buxton break loose. Image courtesy of © Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports Realistically fans of the Minnesota Twins have been awaiting a breakout from Byron Buxton for the better part of seven years. In that time he’s either flashed ability, or shown a very brief glimpse of availability. Only once, in 2020, did we come close to seeing what it looked like together and even that is debatable. For Minnesota, paying Buxton should’ve been a no-brainer. He’s among the best players in the world when healthy, and the only reason they were in position as the only to be able to give him a $100 million contract is because free agency and a $300 million contract has been thwarted by injury. Buxton spent the early portion of his Major League career being instructed to put the ball on the ground, utilize his speed, and sacrifice a power tool that was so evident during his pre-draft process. The Georgia native looked to project as a true five-tool player, and a previous Minnesota regime sought to get less of a ceiling while attempting to ensure a safer floor. By 2017, we began to see how silly that looked. Buxton racked up MVP consideration largely for his defense, winning both a Platinum and Gold Glove. He did hit 16 longballs though, and that came across a big league best 140 games. Injury struck again in 2018, but by 2019 it was clear the Twins star was an offensive threat too. In 2020 he advanced his MVP positioning while posting a career-best 125 OPS+. It’s hard to count the contribution as whole however, given that he played in just over 50% of an already truncated 60 game season. The past two seasons we have seen Buxton compile a 150 OPS+ and look the part of a guy who should rack up bombs and extra-base hits with ease. While still seeking a season of true availability to pair it with, 2022 brings promise. In the first year of a new seven-year deal, Buxton played in 92 games. That is the most he’s logged in any season since 2017, and comes with the caveat that he was injured almost from the get go. Despite needing consistent fluid drains of his knee following a slide against the Boston Red Sox, Buxton continued to produce. Although his pendulum swung a bit too far in the slugging over on-base direction, he managed pain and remained available for Rocco Baldelli’s club for much of the competitive duration. Despite the Twins feeling good about where Buxton is in his offseason program, there is some reason for caution. He underwent a knee surgery following the regular season, and will soon ramp back up to baseball activities. Given what he produced while playing with a substantial injury last season though, it’s more than clear that Minnesota stands to come up big time if he can be kept on the field. That has definitely been the mantra throughout the duration of his eight year career, but Buxton posted numbers that would extrapolate to 49 homers, five triples, and 23 doubles over the course of a full season. His 7.0 fWAR would have ranked 6th in baseball, and behind only American League MVP winner Aaron Judge among hitters. There is no one more focused on keeping Buxton on the field this season than himself, and the Twins are certainly attempting to put a new foot forward with Nick Paparesta leading the training staff. For the vast majority of Minnesota’s roster, the production from those carried over will largely impact how much noise this club makes. We shouldn’t be questioning how good Buxton is anymore, he’s otherworldly. The only question is if he can remain out there, and fighting through what he did a season ago and racking up 92 games, should bring some promise for something we haven’t seen in years. View full article

New Twins trainer lays down law, calls into question previous health and injury practices. Image courtesy of © Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports Of the many issues that befell the 2022 Minnesota Twins, a run of truly wretched injury luck was a decisive factor. Per Baseball Reference, they lost 9.4 Wins Above Replacement to injuries. It drove the team to hire a new athletic trainer, Nick Paparesta, away from Oakland. And the changes are coming fast. “I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus,” said Paparesta. “This is not a metaphor. They would actually put players under the team bus last year to quote ‘blast their abs’ unquote. They shouldn’t have done that. It’s wildly irresponsible.” Paparesta, who spent the last 12 seasons with the Athletics, also called into question the team’s practice of not letting anyone leave after the game without licking their locker clean to prevent the spread of germs and bad humors. “There was a sign above the exit that said ‘If you’re not licking you’re losing.’ The entire team had thrush the entire season. They had diseases usually associated with 17th century sailors. The bullpen had a malaria outbreak. Mosquitoes feared them.” Although it’s impossible to eliminate hazards of the game like comebackers and wild pitches, Paparesta emphasized there are things you can do to mitigate the injury risk. “This shouldn’t need to be said, but if a pitch is coming towards your head, do not open your mouth for good luck in the coming harvest season,” said Paparesta. “You’ll wreck your teeth. No one here is a farmer. I’m baffled by this approach.” “Similarly, if there is comebacker to the mound, thrusting your midsection at the ball to assert dominance and virility is not sound advice,” continued Paparesta. “A lot of these young guys want to start families someday. Taking a rocket to the gooch works against that.” The team offered no further comment on previous health and injury guidelines but confirmed that they’re sourcing their 2023 sunflower seeds from a supplier that uses less cobra venom in the seasoning process. “We had never heard of ‘nightmare diarrhea’ before. It was a teachable moment,” said a front office source. "It's still going to smell like World War I for a while, that's not going away anytime soon." View full article

The Minnesota Twins hired new athletic trainer Nick Paparesta to lead the team to more healthy waters. But how much impact can one athletic trainer have? Image courtesy of Lance Iversen, USA Today Forgive me for beating a dead horse, but the Minnesota Twins were among the most injured teams in MLB during the 2022 regular season. In total, Twins players missed a staggering 2,332 days due to injury, the second-most in baseball and the fifth-most since Baseball Prospectus began tracking injury data following the 2018 season. As a result, the team parted ways with head athletic trainer Michael Salazar, who had served in the position since 2020. The Athletic’s Dan Hayes cited the number of soft tissue injuries suffered by the Twins as well as questionable rehabilitation practices, particularly that starting pitcher Tyler Mahle had not been participating in a shoulder strengthening regimen despite landing on the IL three times with shoulder fatigue, played a large role in the team’s decision to move on. This past Thursday the team announced that they had hired former Oakland A’s head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta to fill the hole left by Salazar. Paparesta spent the last 12 years with Oakland and was named to the 2018 Major League Athletic Training Staff of the Year. (For what it’s worth, Salazar was also named to the team in 2016.) According to Baseball Prospectus, the A’s have been among the league’s healthiest teams over the last five seasons, though it should also be noted that the Twins weren’t far behind. Below is how the two team’s have stacked up as of late: While both teams overall have been well-managed, there is a noticeable trend over the past three seasons with the A’s ranking among MLB’s healthiest squads and the Twins falling down a well. Minnesota is hoping that the arrival of Paparesta will help right the ship, but the question is: How much can one athletic trainer impact a team’s injury rates? The unsatisfactory answer is that it’s difficult to know. Injuries and re-injuries are complex, multifactorial, and often random events, making it difficult, at times, to determine direct cause and effect. Nutrition, genetics, anatomical makeup, sleep hygiene, chronic workload, acute workload, and past injury history are all critical variables in determining an athlete’s injury risk and not all of them can be treated or modified, particularly by a single athletic trainer. As such, it’s critical that the entire performance team—often comprised of the athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, and sports scientists—be in lockstep with each other and communicate with the athletes efficiently and effectively. The best rehabilitation and strength training techniques aren’t of much value if the athletes don’t buy into their individual management routines. From purely a treatment perspective, it’s unlikely that Paparesta will employ anything unique from what Salazar was performing. Most athletic trainers at the MLB level have similar skills and levels of knowledge. However, what may change are details around the margins, such as refined exercise prescription, soft tissue management frequency, sleep practices, interactions with the athletes, etc. It's impossible to know how the hiring of Paparesta will play in the clubhouse from the outside. By all accounts, Salazar was well-liked by the athletes and coaching staff and it's tough to stick around a team for over a decade in Paparesta's case if you aren't respected. While it's difficult to project how the transition from Salazar to Paparesta will impact the team's health, it isn't particularly difficult to make the following claim: Michael Salazar was not the lone reason why the Twins were depleted by injuries last season and Nick Paparesta won’t be the the lone reason why the team may be healthier next summer. It’s possible that Salazar did everything “right” and simply ran into bad luck. It’s also possible that Paparesta simply possesses intrinsic qualities that are difficult to describe and quantify, but simply lead to better outcomes. (There’s a lot of “soft science” in rehabilitation, such as psychology and personal skills in addition to the “hard science” of concrete data.) Regardless, there’s no way that the Twins can be more injury-plagued in 2023, right? View full article