Byron Buxton Goes Deep

[Matthew Trueblood]

Byron Buxton has the kind of athleticism that makes everything seem possible. To stay healthy, though, he’s had to concede some things.The Twins’ center fielder has a multi-faceted strategy for avoiding the shoulder-subluxing, skull-scrambling wall collisions that have plagued him recently. The numbers show how he’s dramatically changed his defensive positioning to minimize those risks. Now, the question will be how much he can change his actions, without losing the adventurousness that helped make him an elite defender.

 

There was a particular fly ball in Saturday night’s game against Cleveland on which Buxton’s chief adjustment was thrown into sharp relief. Franmil Reyes tagged a Kenta Maeda slider to dead center field, hit at 100.3 miles per hour. It flew 396 feet, but Buxton caught it easily. Here’s how Statcast mapped the play:

 

Download attachment: Reyes to Buxton.PNG

 

Obviously, Reyes has great power, so Buxton was playing deep against him anyway. Still, the positioning that made that an easy play has been a hallmark of Buxton’s approach to his defense all season. Here are his average starting depths for each season of his career.

 

Byron Buxton, Average Starting Distance, 2015-20

Season

Distance

2015

310

2016

313

2017

314

2018

314

2019

321

2020

334

 

 

In order to make going back on deep fly balls less threatening to his health (and, for that matter, to the structural integrity of outfield walls throughout the big leagues), Buxton has moved a full two dozen feet deeper (on average) than he played as a rookie. He began to make the adjustment last year, but as you can see, he’s gone from adjusting to fully reimagining his own position in 2020. The only center fielder who plays deeper than Buxton, on average, is Atlanta’s Ender Inciarte.

 

This is in keeping with league-wide trends, at a collective level, even if it’s a bit unorthodox at an individual one. The fastest center fielders in the game still tend to play shallower than slower ones, and Buxton’s move certainly bucks that notion, but in general, the league has steadily been nudging its outfielders further out for at least half a decade. Anecdotally, it seems to have been going on longer than that.

 

Some of the change, to be sure, is a response to the highly aerodynamic baseball, and to the profusion of power across all teams and positions. There are very few hitters left in the majors who can’t hit the ball 375 or 400 feet often enough to justify a respectful outfield depth. However, teams have also used Statcast data to better understand defense itself, and they’ve realized that playing outfielders shallow rarely steals enough bloop singles to make up for the extra doubles and triples that can happen on deep flies and line drives to the gaps. Outfielders who play deeper usually make more plays, prevent opponents from taking extra bases better, and stay healthier.

 

If the Derek Falvey-Thad Levine regime has one trademark, it’s that in every season since they’ve arrived in Minnesota, the team has found a new way to get better, or has doubled down on some previous area of improvement. They never call any aspect of their organization good enough, and stop trying to improve it. They never make half the necessary changes, hit a wall, and stop. The Twins are a franchise dedicated to the growth mindset. They don’t ask whether they’ve made adequate progress, but rather, what progress might still reasonably be made. Keeping Buxton healthy is one area in which they still had room to make progress. Now, they (and Buxton himself) have done just about all they can do.

 

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[Linus]

Buxtons swing has gotten long again. His hands are so high for someone who struggles with pitch recognition. He needs to prioritize contact and worry about power later

[ashbury]

Buxtons swing has gotten long again. His hands are so high for someone who struggles with pitch recognition. He needs to prioritize contact and worry about power later

What do the high hands even do, for a batter?

[highlander]

Interesting concept. When I was coaching HS JV in Texas I encouraged my centerfielder to play shallow. The varsity coach liked his centerfielder to play deep. I guess that is why he was the varsity coach and I was JV.

[ewen21]

A very definite pattern has developed over the years. Every single time the season starts Buxton looks completely overmatched in the batter’s box. He’s 1 for 13 with 6 strikeouts and “small sample size” doesn’t apply. He’s started every single season horribly. Why is this?

 

Over the last few years he’s been vocal about hitting and what works for him. He’s talked about his need to be comfortable with what he’s doing. I’m not thinking about how he goes back on balls right now (as important as it is for him to clean up). I’m more concerned about his cluelessness in the batters box

[mikelink45]

I join the other responders - his approach in the batter's box is horrible and we talked about having an amazing lineup 1 - 9.  With Josh Donaldson out, Garver struggling, Sano struggling with an occasional power outburst, Jake Cave is riding on one good at bat so far this season, and Buxton no better than a pitcher in the nine hole the lineup is no where as powerful and potent as we predicted.  Thanks pitchers.  

But Buxton has now been around a long time - six years in MLB.  He currently has a -0.2 WAR.  We all want him to succeed, we want him to be the star that Luis Roberts is now predicted to be, but we grasp at straws.  

 

The season is now 1/6th complete.  In a short season the slumps are even more difficult to deal with.  I am all for keeping him healthy in the field, but if his fielding goes down even a little his lack of hitting becomes even more unacceptable. 

[Linus]

What do the high hands even do, for a batter?

Good question- nothing other than a comfort thing.

[ATL_TWINK]

 

But Buxton has now been around a long time - six years in MLB. He currently has a -0.2 WAR.  We all want him to succeed, we want him to be the star that Luis Roberts is now predicted to be, but we grasp at straws.  

 

 

This isn't phrased very clearly.  -0.2 is his WAR for this year.  His career WAR is 9.7

 

Buxton is fine.

[ATL_TWINK]

1. This article is not about his approach in the batter's box

2. 16 plate appearances LOL

3. People really don't understand just how good his defense is, and just how much better that allows kepler to be in RF, and thus don't understand his overall impact on the defense. Go back and look at the ball that was hit by Ramirez in the Bieber game. It was roped down the line.  Kepler gets it back in for a single. Yes, Lindor hit a HR the next AB, but if Cave is in CF (or Kepler in CF and Cave in RF) that is a double for Ramirez.  Buxton changes the game without touching the ball.  

 

[h2oface]

https://www.mlb.com/video/byron-buxton-s-wheels-on-display?t=statcast