Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton

This may come back and hurt the Twins BIG TIME if Buxton can find his stroke & stay healthy going forward. Those are 2 big things to ask for sure.

Is it worth it to gain another year of service time? My answer would be no. Gaining 1 extra year of service time gains you absolutely nothing in the long run. Back to my earlier points that if he rebounds and stays healthy his agent may not entertain the thought of a long term deal. Then it's just a waiting game for him to become a free agent and leave.

On paper this seems like a smart move. Sadly, everyone comes out of this a loser.

I am a firm believer that Buxton will end up a defining player in the Twins future, as I still think his talent will show through. So there are parts of me that want to see him play and develop ASAP, and those that want to keep the year of ST. The current FO approach does both. But at what cost?

The wrist issue is being under played here. Is it legitimate? Is it FO deflection?

IF it is legitimate and Buxton is not completely healthy I can see the FO feeling some justification in him being withheld a year of ST. Just keeping him on the MLB roster to burn this month if he really can't swing effectively isn't a sound business decision. And MLB is a business. Yet the fan side of me says I would rather see him play now.

Btw, Jake Caves playing time isn't an issue for me. Jake Cave is a fourth OF type, with more power than one would expect and a little less defense than one would expect. He has had a pretty lengthly audition, and I doubt the FO needs further info on him. But the biggest reason is his ceiling isn't making or breaking any team.

Buxton on the other hand is a player who is a key piece in the teams future. If he doesn't fulfill both his inherent talent and frankly his hype, their is little chance for this team to ever reach the peak that Sano and him onetime dangled so enticingly in front of us. He can/could be that good. That's what makes this decision different than the Caves of MLB. Reverse Cave and Buxton and no one would have cared if Cave left four years from now in a hissy fit, or if he came up and burned that year.

While I have went back and forth on this issue, I have came to the conclusion that forced to make the decision myself, I would make the same one. But there is a qualifier herein! If the FO is willing to make such a hard core business decision regarding this issue, I fully expect to see it continue forward in that vein of practices. Meaning, cleaning up the 40 man roster, and further improving the field staffs of all the teams. Moving sacred cows on and off the field. Someone, somewhere, or possibly all over the orginisation is NOT teaching the appreciation of fundamentals to these players. The orginisation has been littered with the likes of brothers of players. Sons of managers. And a seemingly endless stream of "special assistants"? While that doesn't preclude them from being good baseball minds, it doesn't necessitate it either.

Lastly, four years hence? Buxton becomes the star that is possible, and I envision? What then? Will the CBA remain the same? Will the financial situation of MLB and the entertainment industry in general remain as it currently is? No one knows. What we do know is that most players will take the best deal for themselves and their families, just as we would. For family reasons we and even some players may give a discount? That said, Byron Buxton is not Joe Mauer, there will not be either a hometown discount or a familial tie to this area. He will likely follow the money. Many consider him the heir to other Twins center fielders. In that context all one has to do to consider Buxtons likely actions in four years is see Hunter, Torii. He was adored here, he expressed a similar adoration for the local fans, and then he followed the money right out of town. MLB is a business, for both the owners and the players.

Well, they did it. They shut him down and they know it ticked him off. Levine said

 

"From this day forward, I think we recognize a responsibility to make amends," Levine said. "And that we're going to need to invest in the relationship with Byron Buxton moving forward, because I think as much as we would like to believe that all the relationship building here to date will carry the day, we understand this is a blow to the player, a potential blow to the relationship and we're prepared to try and stay as consistent as we can and reinvest in that element of this because we realized this was information that was not appealing or certainly collaborative."

 

Translation, "We know this will piss him off, but maybe we can give him something to smooth his ruffled feathers."

 

Meaning: Buck is gone as soon as he can go free agent, and he won't sign an extension.

He has a career OPS+ of 79 in over 1000 PA. Is this truly something to be worried about?

Sure, maybe someday he’ll actually be a legitimate MLB hitter. But the fantasy of him being some kind of otherwordly player is over.

Shutting down Buxton is a decision that reminds me of some of the decisions under Bill Smith. It's nonsense and everyone can see it as such except for the front office.

This post hasn't aged well...

How so? It's now an issue. I said it wasn't an issue until it happened. It has now happened. I think it's the wrong decision.

Yet somehow, .135 hitting waiver castoff Johnny Field got a call up.

The end goals for Field and Buxton are not the same.

Buxton is a bust. He is injury prone and his slow starts last five months. 

After May 1 last year he hit .272/.325/.454. With his defense, that's a superstar.

Gaining one year of service time is actually extraordinarily valuable if Buxton becomes a competent to good major league hitter.  The problem, of course, is that we have very little evidence so far that he will. 

 

What we have is a bunch of us wishfully thinking our plan with him will bring that Byron out for 162 games, but none of us know with any certainty what would work.

 

I hope this plan works.  And if it doesn't, I hope the next thing we try works.  There is clearly talent there, but there are now over 1,000 PA that indicate he may be a bust.  Let's hope this strategy, and whatever they do in the offseason, reverses that.

This moves means they gotta trade him before his contract is over. Which means they want to help him play better.... for some other team 

This is about more than just Buxton. It's about a front office that doesn't have the best interests of its players at heart. Word is out. Lukewarm free agent signings last winter; who will agree to play here next winter? Pulling the plug on the season at the trade deadline before the season was completely over, with Escobar finding out he was traded from teammates who saw the ESPN ticker. That's not leadership. Manipulating Buxton's service time in September, because they can. These too-clever-by-half types of things backfire more often than not. Players are not widgets. Organizations that do business this way do not win. That's my short-winded feeling on it.

Im with ya. 

Our definitions of “superstar” vary widely.

Well he had MVP votes last year, so that puts him in some sort of an elite company.

I don't think he's going to do well here, same as with Hicks, for Buxton to realize his true potential, for whatever reason it may be, I think he will need to be on another team to do it.  I think if Hicks had stayed in Minnesota he would have been out of the league by now.  Why it's like this I have no clue.  I'm starting to feel the same about Sano too.  I mean it could be something as simple as those guys are not leaders and they need to be on a team that has some leaders so they are not the primary focus or something.  But whatever it is, they look to continue down this road of failure until they land somewhere else.

No. No he hasn’t. You can’t lose something you never had and that was never guaranteed to you. This year of service was never guaranteed. And Buxton is at least partly responsible for being in the position he is to lose it...both in terms of lack of durability and performance. Does Cave deserve losing at-bats to Buxton this fall? Would we be even noticing this if Buxton was the scrappy journeyman 6th-rounder and Cave were the 2nd overall pick whose greatness had been proclaimed since 2014?

And yet, I want Buxton up. Life isn’t fair.

You can't blame "Lack of durability" on a player that crashes into the wall and dives for fly balls for your entertainment. Unless, of course, you don't care about the effort displayed. 

And this has nothing to do with Cave, or Grossmann or Nick Punto.   Does anybody really want to see Buck sent home so Fields and Grossman can get more at bats?