There’s finally some relief coming to help the Minnesota Twins. They activated Byron Buxton from the injured list, and he will rejoin the Twins Friday night for the start of a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds.
With Buxton returning, the Twins sent Austin Martin to Triple-A. Buxton had his last action on Sept. 5 with the Saints on a rehab assignment before being ejected from the game for arguing an automatic strike for a pitch clock violation. However, his last game with the Twins was on August 12 against the Kansas City Royals at home. That means he’s missed a month’s worth of games before returning to the lineup on Friday.
Before the Twins placed him on the injured list on Aug. 15 with right hip inflammation, Buxton had been one of Minnesota’s most consistent hitters. He has a .275/.334/.528 triple slash, a .862 OPS, 16 home runs, 49 RBI. Buxton also leads the team with a 3.3 bWAR in 90 games this season. His triple slash and OPS are the highest they’ve been since 2021. With three more RBIs, he’ll set a new career high.
But Buxton’s counting stats are not his most significant number going into the final 16 games of the regular season. If he can play in 10 more games without injury, it’ll be the first time since 2017 and only the second time in Buxton’s career he’s played 100 games or more.
However, Buxton has not matched that number for the last six seasons (excluding 2020 due to the pandemic-shortened 60-game season), and fans want to see him on the field for more than 100 games. Buxton came close to hitting the century mark two seasons ago in 2022 when he played in 92 games for a second-place Twins team plagued with injuries. However, Minnesota shut him down on August 23, 2022, with a strain on the same hip he’s healing now.
Buxton has played in 482 of the 1,016 games the Twins have played over the last six years (47.4%). Having one of their best overall players and second-longest tenured hitter, behind Max Kepler, in that timeframe has left a hole in the lineup and center field.
Minnesota’s centerfield situation this season has been nowhere near as bad as in 2021, when the Twins were calling players up ahead of schedule, with Buxton playing only three games between May 6 and Aug. 27. The Twins have rostered better backups between Willi Castro, Martin, Manuel Margot, and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. compared to Rob Refsnyder, Gilberto Celestino, Nick Gordon, and Jake Cave three years ago.
Margot may not be the best player defensively, and the Twins have shuffled Castro around the field so much that he did not play center field from June 6 until Sept. 1 last week. However, Martin and Keirsey have provided stability throughout the season’s dog days of September.
Martin will return to the minors with Buxton’s return, which provides a great right- and left-handed hitting platoon of Buxton and Keirsey to manage center field for the remainder of the regular season and (hopefully) the postseason. Keirsey’s defense in the outfield is only second to Buxton; he’s made many highlight-reel plays that have caught national attention.
Buxton’s injury absence in center is not unique across the league. He’s missed nearly as much time as Aaron Hicks, his predecessor in center field. After the Twins traded Hicks to the New York Yankees in November 2015, Hicks played in 623 of New York’s 1,023 games (60.8%) in seven seasons.
Hicks played in 100 or more games three times in that seven-season span, but his injuries kept his production at or below league average when healthy. He had a 102 OPS+ in those seasons, or 2% better than the league average of 100. On the other hand, Buxton has a 122 OPS+ in his seven seasons without 100 or more games played, highlighting the greater significance of his impact even as he battles through injuries to keep his playing time going.
Buxton will need everything to go perfectly with his health for these last 16 games to play over 100 games for the second time in his career. It’s a benchmark that doesn’t have much significance for teammates like Castro or Carlos Santana, who have pillars of health and consistent playing time throughout their careers. But for Buxton, who hasn’t always had the luxury, a healthier-than-usual 100-plus game season could be the biggest difference maker for the type of run the Twins can go in this postseason.
