As trade deadline season draws closer, Twins star Byron Buxton again looked to shoot down early speculation about his availability. Buxton, who has full no-trade rights and said multiple times last summer that he’s not interested in leaving Minnesota, doubled down on that this evening.
“I don’t give a f—,” Buxton told Dan Hayes of The Athletic when asked about being in trade rumors. “End of the day, nobody’s in my shoes. Nobody can say anything about what I’m going to do. I know what I’m doing. The only way I’m getting out of here — they’re going to have to come talk to me and tell me something else. Simple as that. … I ain’t said nothing about leaving, nor will I. I’m a Twin.”
The Twins completed a resounding three-game sweep of the Rangers this afternoon. They’ve taken four straight since dropping a season-worst eight games below .500 over the weekend. The Twins are back within a game and half in an AL Wild Card picture in which every team is within seven games. Minnesota sits 4.5 back of the Guardians atop the AL Central, putting them third in the division behind Cleveland and the White Sox.
It hasn’t been a great season, but Minnesota has been more competitive than most outside observers probably anticipated as we near the halfway point. Buxton has been arguably the biggest factor in keeping them in the hunt. He has avoided the injured list and already has 23 home runs, putting him on track to surpass last year’s career-high 35 longballs. He’s hitting .270/.330/.589 across 288 plate appearances. Only Kyle Schwarber and Yordan Alvarez have more home runs, while he trails just Alvarez and Ben Rice in slugging percentage.
FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each have Buxton as the Twins’ most valuable player this season, narrowly above staff ace Joe Ryan. By measure of FanGraphs WAR, only Pete Crow-Armstrong is having a better season among center fielders. Buxton is fourth at the position by B-Ref WAR behind Crow-Armstrong, Andy Pages and Ceddanne Rafaela. He’s on track to start in the All-Star Game, as he was fourth among AL outfielders in fan voting at last check. Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Cody Bellinger were above him. Judge will miss the All-Star Game, and Trout just landed on the injured list with a hamstring strain.
Buxton is signed through the 2028 season. He’s making a $15MM base salary but can earn up to $2.5MM annually in plate appearance incentives and has a significant MVP bonus. He’d earn $8MM if he wins MVP, $7MM for a runner-up finish, $6MM for third, $5MM for fourth, $4MM for fifth, or $3MM for landing in the back half of the top 10. Buxton narrowly missed the cutoff last year, landing in 11th place for the highest finish of his career — though he did collect a $1MM bonus for reaching 542 plate appearances. He’s trending toward a top 10 finish and potentially top five this season if he stays healthy.
There’s been some thought that Buxton could reconsider his no-trade stance if the Twins go on a scorched earth rebuild. He’ll be 33 in December and has only appeared in four career postseason games between injuries and the team’s inconsistency. Perhaps that’s what he alluded to with his comment about being told “something else,” but ownership seemed uninterested in stripping the roster all the way down last winter regardless. They didn’t make much of an effort to contend either, entering the season with one of the worst bullpens in the league and a top-heavy lineup. Still, they’ve hung close enough to the playoff picture that they probably don’t feel the need to go in that direction.
It will set up an interesting call on what to do with Joe Ryan and catcher Ryan Jeffers. The former is under arbitration control for one year after this and would command a substantial return — likely one similar to when they landed two Top 100 prospects (Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson) for José Berríos at the 2021 deadline. Jeffers is an impending free agent and would be the best catcher available. He’s on the injured list after undergoing hamate surgery last month but could be back before the end of July.
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