One day after general manager Jeremy Zoll made it clear the Twins intend to be buyers at the trade deadline, they placed All-Star center fielder Byron Buxton on the injured list for the second time this month. It's the same injury — a right hip strain/impingement — that he's dealt with, off and on, for most of the season.
Buxton played seven games between IL stints, hitting .160 and clearly looking less than 100 percent physically. He struggled to decelerate when running in the field and on the bases, was slow to get up after sliding several times, and simply didn't look comfortable swinging the bat. It's an injury that's lingered since May.
It's remarkable that Buxton was able to play as well as he did while compromised, hitting .263/.320/.544 with 25 homers in 82 games for a 137 OPS+ in line with his 138 OPS+ in 2024-2025. But with a constant risk of aggravating the injury leading to frequent absences, it became untenable. He received an injection Wednesday.
"With that injection, we thought he was going to be down probably seven days," manager Derek Shelton said. "At this juncture, we just weren't going to play short with it. Most importantly, we need to try to minimize this and get it knocked out with this injection so the rest of the year he’s healthy."
Aaron Gleeman
Rather than make a big splash by calling up No. 1 prospect Walker Jenkins for his MLB debut, the Twins turned back to infielder Tristan Gray to fill Buxton's roster spot. Gray was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul two weeks ago after spending three-plus months with the Twins, hitting just .232/.271/.333 (69 OPS+) in 63 games.
Jenkins, a league-wide top-25 prospect, has batted .292/.364/.494 with 12 extra-base hits, five steals, and nearly as many walks (10) as strikeouts (12) in 23 games since returning from a shoulder injury in mid-June. And, just as importantly with Buxton out, the 21-year-old is widely considered a solid defensive center fielder.