Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters, including Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com, that Byron Buxton will work primarily at designated hitter early in the season. According to Baldelli, while Buxton is “doing great” health-wise, the club wants to use him as a DH early in the year in order to hopefully keep him healthy for the full 2023 season. Baldelli did not specify how long that would last beyond noting that the club planned to more slowly build him up to center field work.
This decision is sure to cut into Buxton’s value early in the year, as despite his excellence at the plate (150 wRC+ across the 2021-22 campaigns), a great deal of his value comes from being among the very best defensive center fielders in the sport. That being said, it’s an understandable plan for the Twins to go into the season nonetheless. Buxton has only played 100 games once in his career, in 2017.
He has played just 307 games since then, reaching only 92 contests last year before suffering a right hip strain in August. Buxton also played through right knee issues until that point, eventually electing to shut things down once the Twins were knocked out of playoff contention. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee in September.
The defensive drop-off that comes from using Buxton as a DH might not be as severe as one would expect considering the Twins’ excellent outfield defense. Michael A. Taylor, whom the Twins acquired from the Royals earlier this offseason, has posted +22 Outs Above Average over the past two seasons. With Taylor manning center field while flanked by Joey Gallo and Max Kepler in the outfield corners, the Twins will retain Gold Glove caliber defense across the outfield even while Buxton isn’t playing the field.
The Twins don’t go into 2023 with an established everyday designated hitter. Corner infielders Alex Kirilloff and Jose Miranda can rotate through those spots, while utility infielders Nick Gordon and Donovan Solano could also get reps there. With Jorge Polanco potentially beginning the season on the injured list, the Twins might have to rely on that duo at second base in the early going. Polanco has ramped up slowly this spring after his 2022 campaign was cut short by a left knee issue.
I see a pine sliver injury in his future.
No way, stationary bike riding accident
It is truly bizarre how effective and valuable Buxton is vs how little he stays healthy.
He’s a 7+ WAR player with a platoon bench player’s active time.
Ehhhh….. he’s a 7 WAR MAX player in a full CF season. Buxton fans tend to project him as though he were still a 23 year old prospect and not a 29 year old 8 year veteran.
Last year, Buxton played in 92 games and accumulated 4.0 fWAR. Make it 138 games and it’d be 6.0 fWAR.
Buxton is a perennial All Star level talent, but it’s a stretch to think he’ll be an MVP candidate. He just doesn’t get on base enough for that.
Last two years Buxton has played 153 games and has an 8.1 fWAR and 8.5 bWAR. If he’s healthy enough to play a full year, he can be one of the most valuable players in the sport.
I could use Joe Mauer’s 2009 like that, too.
He is the most overrated player in MLB. That extension is aging and will age terribly.
The extension is very team friendly if he can’t play. If he plays a lot and we’ll he’ll make a lot.
It’s not a David Wright situation where you’re paying $20mil for a cheerleader.
No you meant to say Mike Trout.
You think Mike Trout is overrated? LOL. Trout already achieved unanimous first ballot HoF status in his 20s… He has over 80 career WAR and could potentially go over 150 career WAR in his career. In an age where competition is far higher than historical players had to compete against. Injuries have certainly made a big impact, but it’s not inconceivable he could end his career with 150 WAR.
@martras trout is great but to expect 150 WAR for his career is pushing it. He’d need 10 7 WAR seasons.
He’s not even under contract that long. Eventually he’ll lose foot speed and move to an outfield corner. Really tough to put up 7 WAR as a 35+ year old LF unless you’re Barry bonds.
“not inconceivable” does not mean “expecting”
Trout’s ceiling is much higher than 7 WAR right now.
Sure, for a couple more years. He also hasn’t played a full season since 2019. You’re probably talking 8-9 WAR at the ceiling at this point. His base running and D grades arent in the elite territory as they used to be. Assuming full health and production.
He’s a real long shot for that. More likely he ends up in the 125-130 WAR range. That’s give him an average of just over 6 WAR year for the next 8 years.
I’d say his ceiling is still 10 WAR-ish, but like I said, “not inconceivable” isn’t “expecting.” 150 career WAR is probably the absolute ceiling.
I mean yeah that’d be 8 seasons of 9 WAR years.
That’s a lot to see from anyone. Especially a guy who will be exiting his prime. He’s a super human but that’d be real tough.
He “only” cracked 10fWAR twice and that was when he was really young, swiped bags, was fully healthy and had elite D. He’s still phenomenal but he doesn’t swipe bags and his D is down to really good.
fangraphs.com/players/mike-trout/10155/stats?posit…
Being a 10 WAR player is extremely difficult. Maybe he pulls it off 1 more time.
Would you feel better if I downgraded him all the way to a ceiling of 140 career WAR? I mean it’s all semantics. 140 vs 150 career WAR would make Trout 8th instead of 7th in history.
Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Barry Bonds*, Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Roger Clemens* that’s your top 8 right now.
One strikeout and now Mike Trout is overrated
He gets $15mm a year and puts up 4 WAR. That’s a decent value for the Twins. Imagine if he played a full season and they were getting 8 WAR for the same price. The Twins would be fleecing him.
You forgot incentives
Imagine something that’s never happened like Buxton playing an entire season. A player’s real worth is how much he gives you on a day to day basis for an entire season. All your metrics are meaningless because it’s not real.
No he is the most under appreciated player in MLB. Yes injuries has killed him from career fame but when he does play he is among the very best in baseball.
Concise & to the point. Buxton is a bust, period.
Not really. Way worse contracts. He’s extremely talented and still provides great value despite being hurt a lot.
@Buzz
Does Bux move the needle an inch in the overall standings? I really doubt his contributions out-weigh the negatives. This is the type of player you wish on your rivals.
A lot of his rivals would love to have him for the great production he provides when healthy.
That’s the problem he can’t stay healthy.
I could see him getting injured in the dugout
He’s a mirage and a rumor like James Paxton. Too bad for both of them.
Smart. Buxton’s bat is more important to the Twins than anything else. Taylor/Gallo/Kepler may be the best defensive OF in MLB
He hit .200 last year and has not done much better with a larger sample size…
Well .220 with a low OBP but you get the point… he was the best hitter in April but faded after that
Does his .526 slug and .303 iso literally mean nothing to you?
The iso is useless imo
why?
If I’m willing to investigate so far as to wonder how many extra base hits they have I’ll just check how many extra base hots they have
ISO is just the rate stat version of exactly what you’re talking about! At least google it before you knock it.
No the batting average would be much closer to useless.
You’re making it too complicated for him.
I completely understand what the stat is. I prefer the raw numbers and classic triple slash. ISO is very narrow in its use and already available at a glance of the triple slash
Do you also count all the hits instead of average?
It’s pretty wild that since 2019, Buxton averages 41 home runs every 162 games. He’s just never healthy to ever even come close to that.
I don’t think they have much of a choice. The minute he walks on the field, he dislocates something. It’s too bad because he has amazing talent. .
So he can push back his injury time by a month?
Yes. An extra month of Buxton is better than no extra month.
Keep in mind he hit .220 last year. He was the best hitterin April but once the sample size expanded, he wasn’t a great hitter. That being said, his stats are all over the place and he hasn’t been consistently on the field so hard to know what to expect.
Batting average is the stat you’re using to evaluate offensive performance? Okay…
He also had 28 home runs, and he played great defense.
Health will always be a concern, but when he plays, he’s terrific.
I agree so much here.
No way
His stats are indicative of a guy who can’t stay on the field.
You’d think an otherwise stingy team would have been smarter about an extension.
He is getting paid half of what star players get. Fitting because he plays half a season. Twins paid him the right amount of money for what they are getting.
The DH is terrible. You have 9-guys on the field and those guys should also bat. Why is it that the pitcher gets to do only one thing, while the fielders are expected to also bat? Why not have a DH for the fielders as well? Baseball is a farce. I miss the good ol’days where the guys on the field were also in the batting order. If you can’t stay on the field long enough to play the season, you can always tryout for the beer league.
I miss the good ol’ days when guy didn’t where helmets and it took 9 balls to walk!
@Superstar Prospect Wander Javier
Me too. I also miss when pitchers had to pitch to where the batter wanted.
Which century was this? The 19th? I know baseball was quite different when it was invented.
@deGrom Texas Ranger
Yes, 19th century.
I assume most of you weren’t around then.
@deGrom Texas Ranger
I found the fountain of youth.
I so miss watching these pitchers who can’t hit trying to hit. And seeing the number 8 hitter get walked intentionally so the pitcher can come to the plate. Oh boy!
Yes because the pre emptive plans worked so well last year
I wouldn’t call the plan last year “preemptive”. Buxton injured his knee in mid-April last year and the Twins tried to nurse him and his injury through basically the entire season. It didn’t work, but the plan to start 2022 was to play Buxton in center field as often as possible.
You can still get hurt swinging a bat.
The two most over rated players in MLB happen to be on the same team. They’re TWINS so to speak.
Buxton & Correa.
Finally someone else realizing how overated Correa is.
We’ll see how long it takes before he cops an attitude about this adjustment which is the typical approach.
Buxton has never had a bad attitude that I’m aware of. And he plays the game hard, which is a factor in the injuries.
He and Carlos Cheater Correa are the best examples of how nonsense and worthless the WAR metric is. WAR INCLUDES a lot of average but their advocate, don’t want to read about batting average. Includes a phatom replacement but Carlos replacement in Houston is already better than Carlos, with more achievements too. Altuve is a better baseball player than CCC and have better numbers in post season.
There is money involved for sure, trying to include CCC in a conversation about best MLB players with his mediocre range, never having a 30hr/100rbi season and justifing everything about luck with men on base, etc. CCC was just a lucky protected player in Houston with unexplained or absurd contract negotiations skills. Very valuable as a politician and as a social networks influencer.
In other words Correa is a grossly overpaid very mediocre player.
Postseason performance is mostly random small-sample noise. Jeremy Pena is not yet better than Carlos. What are these achievements you speak of, lol? And WAR does of course include batting average. It’s just a tiny part of the calculation though, because average isn’t that important. But dumb people aren’t going to like WAR anyway so what can ya do?
If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all. Okay then.
I came here for the Buxton love.
I came here for the IL stint jokes 🙂
I know this will piss off some people but it is worth noting. Most of the fans 40 years of age & under don’t know the difference between equality & equity. Not trying to be political either. You’ve been steadily been fed diluted & tainted product for so long you expect to be treated like red headed step-children each & every year. MLB has turned a great sport into entertainment & frankly it’s more of a circus today than it was before MLB introduced steroids to sell the product. I’m sorry kids, this isn’t a credible sport anymore. The Integrity of the sport has been bastardized and that’s being kind.
I wonder if the Romans cared who the lions were eating.
I agree with you to a point. Another example was the fact that they used different baseballs in different parks last year. I’m hoping this sport doesn’t go fully rigged like the NFL anytime soon. But all sports are headed that way.
After watching the scripted WBC Classic I’m certain that the game is RIGGED.
Laugh react. The same people who complain about participation trophies now cry that everything is rigged if it doesn’t go their way. Thinking can be hard
Every season, the media hypes this guy as the next Willie Mays, and every season he hits in the low to mid .200’s, and misses half the season.
They can play him at DH all they want, but still guarantee he underperforms and hurts himself on some basic play within a month..and then, he’ll hurt himself again on his rehab assignment.
Just another good player who’s overhyped and doesn’t seem to have the heart to stay on the field.
Who cares what his batting average is? He has tremendous home run power. And that’s what wins games offensively.
So did Rob Deer..but he didn’t have his name thrown around like Willie Mays. Also..how come guys like Hunter Renfroe are journeymen then?
Batting average and obp matter, and Buxton is average to below average in each category.
Buxton has essentially played a full season between 2021 and 2022 (153 games, 636 plate appearances). In that time, he has batted .257/.327/.576 with 47 home runs, a 150 wRC+, 18 defensive runs saved, 15 outs above average, a 20.2 UZR/150, and an +8.1 fWAR/+8.5 bWAR. If he could just stay healthy, I fully believe he’d be an MVP candidate.
Buxton is such a polarizing player for fans. I do not see the value in taking Rocco Baldelli’s ‘more rest’ philosophy with him. Buxton has a lot of chronic issues and acute injuries which come up just from his athleticism. Play him when he’s healthy and sit him when he’s not. It’s that simple. He’s going to get hurt. It’s just going to happen, and he’s not a particularly great player at DH. Maybe 2.0-3.0 WAR over a full season.
Agreed, if he’s healthy he should be in CF everyday. No sense in waistline platinum gloves as dh
The numbers mean nothing if Buxton is not in the lineup and the team is not winning. Spare me the drama of waiting for a less-dimensional bench player takes his place.