After a slow start, the Minnesota Twins have climbed back over .500. You could point to the starting pitching or the resurgent lineup as key reasons for Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak. However, one of the biggest reasons is Byron Buxton‘s play.
Buxton is on a tear since April 11, hitting .311/.354/.631 with eight homers, 21 RBI, and six stolen bases in his last 26 games entering Sunday’s series finale with the San Francisco Giants. He’s making highlight plays in the field and looking like the player Twins fans thought they were getting when they signed him to a seven-year, $100 million contract in November 2021.
A story like his is the redemption arc that makes fans romantic about baseball. But if you look at any post online, you’ll see the usual comments.
He’s just going to get hurt…
He’s due for another injury!
MR. GLASS.
Buxton is playing some of the best baseball of his career, but he’s become the team’s most polarizing player since Joe Mauer. While there’s an argument that he’s the face of the franchise, others will disparage him at every turn, running to their keyboards to remind everyone it won’t last.
So why is Buxton so polarizing? There are a few reasons.
The first is the nature of social media. People say things behind a keyboard that they often can’t get away with in real life. While they can scream things to the mountain tops from their couch, they may not be able to say the same things in person. In many ways, the internet does not imitate real life, and people say nasty things as a result.
But when it comes to injuries, Buxton’s detractors can back it up with facts. At age 31, Buxton has played in 100 games twice in his career. When he accomplished the feat last season, it was celebrated like an exhausted runner crossing the finish line at the Twin Cities Marathon.
Players always get hurt, but Buxton’s injuries also occur in the strangest circumstances. After his breakout season in 2017, he only played 28 games after fouling a pitch off his foot. His 2019 season was cut short when he ran into the wall in Miami. He missed 21 games and was severely limited in the playoffs during the 2020 season.
Even when Buxton looked like an MVP candidate in 2021, he dealt with hamstring and hip issues before breaking his hand after a pitch hit him. He made his first All-Star team in 2022, but he played in 19 games after the break. He spent an entire year as Minnesota’s designated hitter in 2023, and one fan brought a sign to Target Field, angrily counting the days of his absence.
Some fans viewed Buxton as the athlete who cashed in and didn’t live up to his contract. However, if you ask anyone in the Twins clubhouse, few players put in the work that Buxton has to be successful. He responded with a solid season, hitting .279/.335/.524 with 18 homers and 56 RBI in 2024, and has backed up with a strong start to the 2025 season. Still, that’s not in the eyes of fans who remember the hype surrounding Buxton on his path to the big leagues.
Buxton wasn’t just a top prospect; people hailed him as a future megastar. Baseball America ranked him as a top-two prospect. When Buxton was tearing up the Midwest League in 2013, Minnesotans wanted to drive to Cedar Rapids to get a glimpse of their future savior. In retrospect, the comparisons were probably unfair, and many believe they didn’t get the prince that was promised.
With Mauer, fans actually got something in return. The Twins were winning division championships almost annually. Minnesota paired him with Justin Morneau, another superstar. Mauer became the first catcher in American League history to win a batting title before winning two more. He won an American League MVP Award in 2009, and many saw his eight-year, $184 million contract as a necessity when Target Field opened.
But things changed when the ink ran dry. Fans learned about bilateral leg weakness as Mauer’s power disappeared. They groaned when he didn’t catch day games after night games. They became frustrated when Mauer moved to first base due to concussions and voiced their opposition to Mauer becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Eventually, Mauer got into Cooperstown, and he has a statue standing outside Gate 34 at Target Field. People cheered him when he stepped behind the plate for a warmup session in his final game. It makes you wonder if Buxton will get the same treatment when he hangs up the cleats.
However, until then, Buxton is the latest slight for a fan base that feels like they’ve been constantly screwed. Ownership offered them up for contraction in 2001. They built a new ballpark, but the Pohlad family slashed payroll after they won a playoff series in 2023. They sat through an 18-game playoff losing streak and were dragged through a public relations disasterclass the following seasons. Their best players always seem to get hurt, and every decision is backed by numbers that the common fan in Section 316 may not understand.
The fact that Buxton didn’t become Mike Trout is just one more thing to throw on the pile. But it also doesn’t have to be this way.
Buxton could get hurt again. The Twins could fall back under .500, and the complaints about payroll and ownership will grow louder. Still, Buxton is healthy right now and playing at a level that can help the team compete in a wide-open AL Central.
That’s more than enough for the Twins. Unfortunately, it may be too late for a toxic group of fans.