The Twins delivered some unfortunate injury news to reporters today, revealing that center fielder Byron Buxton is headed back to the disabled list due to his fractured big toe and that Ervin Santana’s rehab assignment has been halted due to ongoing discomfort in his surgically repaired finger (Twitter links via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com and Dan Hayes of The Athletic). Buxton will have his toe re-examined, while Santana will be examined by a specialist.
It’s been a dismal season for Buxton, who landed on the DL in mid-April for what the club hoped would be a minimal stay due to ongoing migraine issues. Instead, Buxton fouled a ball into his foot on his rehab assignment and sustained a fractured toe which has plagued him since.
Though a six-week timetable for the foot to heal completely was provided, the Twins made the surprising decision to activate Buxton from that DL trip without sending him on a minor league rehab assignment. 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson tweets that today’s decision to place Buxton back on the DL stems from the fact that he’s simply been in too much pain to use his lower half at the plate.
Overall, Buxton has turned in a brutal .159/.187/.205 slash this season, and he’s gone just 6-for-47 since coming off the disabled list and trying to play through the fractured toe. That, obviously, is a far cry from what looked to be a breakout year for Buxton in 2017, when he batted .253/.314/.413 with 16 homers and 29 steals while winning Gold Glove and Platinum Glove honors for his work in the outfield.
[Related: Updated Minnesota Twins depth chart]
With Buxton on the shelf, the Twins will have a number of options to handle center field duties. Ryan LaMarre is currently on the big league roster and can see some time at the position, though both of the Twins’ primary corner outfielders, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler, are also capable of playing center field.
The news on Santana is equally if not more disheartening for a Twins club that had hoped to get its primary rotation anchor back in the near future. The 35-year-old Santana underwent surgery on his middle finger in February and had been hopeful of returning at some point in May or in early June, but it seems he’ll now need a new wave of testing and could see his season debut delayed quite a bit further.
Since signing with the Twins on a four-year, $55MM deal, Santana has turned in 500 2/3 innings of 3.47 ERA ball. He was especially effective in 2016-17, logging a 3.32 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 (though fielding-independent metrics indicated that he had a fair bit of good fortune on his side over that span). With Santana now sidelined indefinitely, the Twins will continue to lean on Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn and impressive rookie Fernando Romero in the rotation for the time being.
Buxton is such an exciting player to watch when he’s on his game. As a Tribe fan, I wish him well in his recovery.
He’ll be in his final year of team control by the time he actually puts together a full season of exciting baseball.
Activating Buxton was a mistake. He himself said he was playing in pain. Just plain silliness to expect that to go away and to have him be productive.
Looks like 2018 will be a lost season for Buxton. As Tribe fans we can sympathize as Michael Brantley had his share of lost seasons in CLE.
The bashing of the Twins handling of Buxton was always overblown to me. From rushing him up to having him start the year batting 3rd this year. I thought those were all very defensible decisions. For the life of me, however, I don’t understand rushing an already struggling Buxton back from a broken toe when his biggest tools are speed and defense… while his biggest flaws seem to be his bat and possibly between his ears (overthinking and trying to do too much). Let the kid get completely healthy and take a mental break here. He is costing us with his play and we need him healthy….
He started the year batting 3rd last year**
100% agreed!!! The kid is a game changer when he can get on base, and fun to watch on both sides of the ball. But I can’t see any positives in rushing him back with the toe thing. For one thing hitting with an injury like that could cause bad habits that take a very long tome to correct and he’s proven he doesn’t need any help in that department. He looks terrible at the plate all on his own at times
Exactly. His bat seems to be such a mental game with him… having added struggles from the toe further mess with his mind seems so silly to me.
They should keep buxton on his rehab assignment the maximum amount of games (I think 20?) in AAA to see if he can figure something out when he gets healthy.
His finger still hurts! How did Bob Gibson complete 255 games? for a fraction of the cost. He never played thru any pain? Give me a break!