Minneapolis – Last week, Byron Buxton made headlines in The Athletic when he reacted (profanely) to the early rumors from national insiders that ranked him as one of the top trade candidates at this year’s Aug. 3 MLB Trade deadline.
Before Tuesday night’s Minnesota Twins game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jeremy Zoll reiterated the same message as Buxton with less colorful language.
“As it pertains to Byron Buxton, we have no plans to trade Byron,” Zoll said. “It’s not something we’re exploring. It’s not something we plan to explore.”
Buxton, 32, has clearly stated his intent to remain in Minnesota for well over a year now. He remained on the team following the 2025 fire sale, where they traded 11 players, and he intends to remain a Twin for life.
He’s been the star of Minnesota’s lineup again this year. He had an American League-leading 25 home runs, 41 RBI, and .929 OPS. Buxton has described the 2026 Twins clubhouse as one of the best he’s been a part of. The front office has also kept lines of communication open with him to ensure they meet his wish to remain part of this team.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a relationship with Byron my entire tenure in the various roles that I’ve had,” said Zoll. “He’s having an unbelievable season. He’s a special player. He wants to be here. We want him to be here. I think to just get that out there makes a lot of sense, especially given a lot of speculation being thrown out there that’s not actually rooted in fact.”
Buxton has a no-trade clause in his contract, which means he can waive against any trade Minnesota’s front office could potentially make with him. The Twins are 38-42 entering Tuesday night’s game and remain within contention of a playoff spot, because the American League has only five teams with a record over .500.
As of now, they’re not entertaining any ideas on trades, let alone their star player Buxton, and want to assure both him and Twins fans he’s here to stay.
“I think he was very clear on that point last week,” said Zoll, “but also just from my seat, from the Twins’ perspective, that’s not something that we plan to explore and just wanted to hit that head on.”
Given their placement in the standings and that it is still late June, Zoll assured the Twins are in no way looking at themselves as sellers with the trade deadline still over a month away.
“I think the team, we’ve been clear all along: we’re hoping to be competitive this year,” he said. “I think we’re right in the thick of it and want to let this next stretch play out and give the group every chance we can to make to make that a reality and really pleased with where it’s at so we’re going to just let that continue to unfold and feel like a handful of games out of the division, right in the thick of things with the Wild Card so going to keep pushing forward and that remains our focus at this time.
“I know there will be broader deadline discussion when we get much closer, but I think the reality is we’re also not alone, being kind of in the thick of things.”
