Right now, Byron Buxton gets to be what he’s constantly threatened, but never got to be:

One of baseball’s greatest forces.

These first three months of the season have earned Buxton a place at Monday’s Home Run Derby and Tuesday’s All-Star Game, but apparently, that wasn’t enough of a show. During the last Minnesota Twins homestand before the festivities, Buxton went off for a .433/.485/.833 slash line over eight games, highlighted by his cycle on Saturday.

It’s true greatness, and even the All-Star Game nod can’t quite put it in perspective. Buxton is now in MLB’s top-15 in home runs (21) and stolen bases (17), a power/speed combination that only Buxton and Pete Crow-Armstrong can claim. His .925 OPS is tied for fifth in baseball, with just Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Shohei Ohtani, and Will Smith sitting ahead of him.

In terms of pure power, Buxton’s .285 ISO has him comfortably in the top-10. Statcast rates his baserunning impact as the fifth-best in baseball. He’s doing all this while still playing an above-average center field at age-31.

It was always easy enough to imagine what a healthy season of Buxton would look like. You can cobble together his abbreviated seasons from 2019 and 2024 and produce a hell of a per-162-game statline, which reads like:

.253/.316/.528 (.844 OPS), 37 HR, 16 SB (2 CS)

Just for fun and some context, let’s plug those into Stathead and see what that season looks like, in practice. There are four comparable seasons to that hypothetical statline, and two of them are peak years from Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Jackson. Not bad company.

But of course, it was always hypothetical with Buxton. His body robbed him of climbing above 400 plate appearances in any of those would-be dominant years. This season, it’s no longer hypothetical. We just witnessed a first half that has a chance to be one of the best Twins seasons in recent memory.

Buxton’s missed games, yes, but he’s still played in 81% of the Twins’ 96 games. Assuming that ratio holds, we’re looking at a 131-game season. At the end of the first half, here’s the 131-game pace statline for Buxton:

.286/.350/.571 (.921 OPS), 35 HR, 29 SB (0 CS)

That sort of line is even rarer than the first, thanks to Buxton’s additional speed. We’ve got just two players who come near it, taking full seasons to reach those marks: Trevor Story in 2018, and Dale Murphy‘s 1983 season, when he won his second MVP Award.

Buxton’s first-half performance has been MVP-worthy itself. Fangraphs has Buxton at 4.0 WAR, tied for fourth with Jeremy Peña and behind just Judge, Raleigh, and Bobby Witt Jr. in the AL. Baseball-Reference, meanwhile, has Buxton sitting fifth with 4.1 WAR. The Twins are going to have to get into the playoffs for Buxton to be in the MVP conversation — and even then, it’s a tall order to thwart Judge — but he’s tracking for 6.7 WAR in 131 games.

However you want to slice it, Buxton’s first half is on pace to put his 2025 in the pantheon of Twins seasons. If we go purely with the bat, Minnesota’s single-season OPS leaderboard since 2000 reads like this, among qualified hitters:

1. 2019 Nelson Cruz, 1.031
2. 2009 Joe Mauer, 1.031
3. 2020 Nelson Cruz, .986
4. 2006 Joe Mauer, .936
5. 2006 Justin Morneau, .934
6. 2025 BYRON BUXTON, .925
7. 2009 Jason Kubel, .907
8. 2012 Josh Willingham, .890
9. 2016 Brian Dozier, .886
10. 2013 Joe Mauer, .880

Quite simply: that rocks.

Of course, once we let the 20th century get in on the fun, Buxton gets bumped down to 16th. But six of those seasons, predictably, are from Harmon Killebrew, who still has a massive claim on Best Hitter in Team History. The other players to have an OPS higher than Buxton’s are: Rod Carew, Chuck Knoblauch, Bob Allison, and Kent Hrbek, who all did it once.

And in terms of all-around value? It’s hard to compete with what Buxton is putting together this season. Here’s where this season ranks among franchise history in Fangraphs WAR:

Twins Position Players, WAR, since 1961

1. 1977 Rod Carew, 8.6
2. 2009 Joe Mauer, 8.3
3. 1996 Chuck Knoblauch, 8.1
4. 1969 Harmon Killebrew, 7.1
5. 1988 Kirby Puckett, 7.1
6. 1975 Rod Carew, 7.1
7. 1967 Harmon Killebrew, 7.0
8. 1965 Zoilo Versalles, 7.0
9. 1963 Bob Allison, 6.9
10. 2025 BYRON BUXTON (projected), 6.7

Think about the names that aren’t on the list. Tony Oliva, Justin Morneau, Brian Dozier, Nelson Cruz, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and more. Buxton’s peak season is sitting on top of a ton of Twins legends in their best years.

We also can’t forget the unique excitement that comes from a player who can both mash and dash. Buxton’s on pace to combine for 65 home runs and stolen bases, which is pretty rarified air in Twins history.

Twins HR+SB, Single-Season, since 1961

1. 1991 Chuck Knoblauch, 71 (9 HR, 62 SB)
2. 2025 BYRON BUXTON (projected), 64 (35 HR, 29 SB)
3. 2016 Brian Dozier, 60 (42 HR, 18 SB)
4. 1996 Chuck Knoblauch, 58 (13 HR, 45 SB)
5. 1976 Rod Carew, 58 (9 HR, 49 SB)
6. 1969 Harmon Killebrew, 57 (49 HR, 8 SB)
7. 1995 Chuck Knoblauch, 57 (11 HR, 46 SB)
8. 1965 Cesar Tovar, 56 (11 HR, 45 SB)
9. 2001 Corey Koskie, 53 (26 HR, 27 SB)
10. 2007 Torii Hunter, 52 (29 HR, 23 SB)

Obviously, Buxton has to finish the season, and finish strong, to get into the upper echelon of Twins seasons. That’s not something to take for granted. But neither is what we’re watching now.

Buxton has been on an incredible run. Should he finish the season with numbers in this realm, we’ll no longer need to wonder what a full Buxton season will look like. This is it. We’re watching it right now, and in a season where the Twins enter the All-Star Break fighting for .500, watching this all-time campaign from Buxton is a rare treat.

Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott covers the Wild for Hockey Wilderness, and the Vikings and Twins for Zone Coverage. He has covered hockey since 2013, previously with The Athletic Minnesota.

All Articles