Byron Buxton’s career hasn’t gone as expected since being selected, but he’s become one of the Minnesota Twins’ most interesting players during the 2026 season. The latest chapter came on Saturday night when the Twins had only two hits on the evening. However, both came off Buxton’s bat, including in a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
One of those hits was a solo home run, which The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman noted was his 13th homer in the past 23 games. That matches a pace in Twins history only Nelson Cruz, Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, and Harmon Killebrew have accomplished. But even with an impressive list of names, Buxton’s biggest comparable right now may be Kirby Puckett.
That may seem preposterous at first glance, considering Puckett is a Hall of Famer and two-time World Series champion. But the real comparison lies in what happened in the middle of the 1990s, where Puckett was the main attraction for a franchise that wasn’t going anywhere.
Most fans remember Puckett’s career for the titles and great moments, but it was a different story after the Twins disbanded the last championship core after the 1992 season. Puckett was slowly beginning his shift from center field to right field. After posting an AL-high 7.1 wins above replacement during that 1992 campaign, he slumped to 1.4 WAR in 1993.
Puckett was still productive at the plate during the final years of his career, hitting .308/.363/.506 with 65 homers and 300 RBI. But he was the only reason people considered watching the Twins.
Sure, there was Chuck Knoblauch at second base as a former American League Rookie of the Year. Marty Cordova even made a cameo at one point by winning the same award during the 1995 season. But while Puckett was solid, he didn’t have the talent around him to make it matter.
Look no further than the opening day lineup for the 1995 Twins. Knoblauch was at the top of the lineup in a year he would produce a 6.7 WAR, and Puckett was hitting third. But between the two stars was a list only an Immaculate Grid player would love.
Alex Cole hit above Puckett in the No. 2 spot. Pedro Muñoz hit behind him at cleanup. Kevin Maas, Cordova, Scott Leius, Pat Meares, and Matt Walbeck filled out the remainder of a lineup that would manage just two hits in a 9-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox, and that team went on to post a 56-88 record.
As someone who was probably watching Rugrats instead of following the Twins in 1991, this was my first memory of Puckett, hitting third for a bad team in a Metrodome that was about 25% capacity. But it’s also the same path Buxton is going down as he becomes a late bloomer.
After knee problems and a long list of other injuries sabotaged the prime of his career, Buxton has made up for lost time as he enters his mid-30s. Since the start of the 2024 season, Buxton is hitting .269/.327/.543 with 66 home runs and 160 RBI. His slugging percentage ranks fifth, and his OPS (.870) ranks 11th among qualifying hitters during that timeframe.
But instead of embracing his resurgence, Twins fans have been turned off. Some of it may be a crazed section of the fan base who are mad he never became Mike Trout or that he ran through all those injuries. The more likely reason is that Buxton is on a team that isn’t grabbing anyone’s attention.
Saturday’s game underscores the problems with Buxton’s supporting cast. Buxton led off the game with a home run, but the Twins went 10 ⅓ innings without recording another hit. Gleeman also noted that Minnesota’s hitters not named Buxton went 0-for-30 with 15 strikeouts in the game.
You could argue that the core of this team has more potential than the 1995 Twins did, who finished the season on a 63-win pace in a 162-game season. But there’s a long list of underperformers, including Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, and Luke Keaschall, who were at the bottom of the lineup in Saturday’s win.
Josh Bell, James Outman, and Trevor Larnach also don’t seem to be long for Minnesota, and we haven’t even touched the pitching part of this conversation, which got weaker when Taj Bradley was sent to the injured list before the game.
This is all interesting considering where Buxton’s second act could be heading. He could continue to hit like this, improve his numbers with runners and scoring position, and earn his third straight All-Star appearance. Still, it won’t register with most fans who are mad at ownership and don’t want to watch the lackluster supporting cast. It could also have Buxton eventually getting fed up, which might cause him to back off his desire to be a Twin for life.
Maybe the upcoming core featuring Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper, and Emmanuel Rodriguez could serve as reinforcements to make the team relevant. But Twins prospects have also shown a tendency to hit the wall when they hit the major league level.
For Puckett, it resulted in a sad ending when a Dennis Martinez pitch in September of 1995 and a glaucoma diagnosis in 1996 forced him into retirement. While Buxton will hopefully avoid a similar situation, his fate may be the same, finishing his career on a high note in front of a half-empty stadium.
