The Twins are placing center fielder Byron Buxton on the 7-day concussion-related injured list, according to Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune. A corresponding roster move won’t be announced officially until tomorrow, though Dan Hayes of The Athletic suggests that outfielder Carson McCusker is traveling to Milwaukee to join the club. Nightengale adds that McCusker is expected to be added to the roster tomorrow, though he’s not yet on the 40-man roster and a corresponding move will be necessary in order for him to replace Buxton.
The decision to place Buxton on the shelf isn’t exactly a surprise given that he collided with shortstop Carlos Correa earlier this week, sending both players to the ground and forcing them both to leave the game. Correa was placed on the concussion IL yesterday, and though Buxton initially remained in concussion protocol he’ll now join Correa on the shelf today. Ryan Fitzgerald was added to the Twins’ roster to replace Correa, but Brooks Lee has taken over shortstop in his absence while DaShawn Keirsey Jr. has filled in for Buxton in center.
Losing Buxton is a particularly harsh blow for the Twins because the oft-injured star has been very healthy to this point in the year. After posting a 142 wRC+ last year while crossing the 100 games played threshold for just the second time in his MLB career, Buxton had played in 41 of the club’s 44 games when the collision occurred while hitting an impressive .261/.312/.522 (130 wRC+) in that time. That star-level offensive production in conjunction with Buxton’s elite defense in center field makes him one of the league’s most valuable players when healthy, but now the Twins will have to figure things out without him for at least the next week.
For however long Buxton is out of commission, it seems the club will turn to McCusker for help in the outfield. Just days shy of his 27th birthday, McCusker has not yet made his MLB debut. A 26th-round pick by the Brewers all the way back in 2017, he ultimately did not sign with the club and played college ball before going undrafted and spending parts of three seasons with the Tri-City Valley Cats of the independent Frontier League. The Twins pried him away from indy ball in 2023 and he’s done nothing but hit since then, with a career .290/.358/.528 slash line in the minors that includes a dazzling .350/.412/.650 performance across 154 plate appearances at Triple-A this season.
While McCusker is getting a late start to his big league career after taking an unusual path to the majors, those titanic numbers in the minors make it hard to deny that he’s ready for an opportunity at the sport’s highest level. A right-handed outfielder, perhaps McCusker can share time in an outfield spot with Keirsey while Harrison Bader and Trevor Larnach continue to hold down everyday spots in the Twins’ outfield mix. While Bader’s 146 wRC+ and Larnach’s 109 wRC+ this year are both good enough that a reduction in playing time seems unlikely, Keirsey has hit just .116/.116/.186 so far this year. A strong performance from McCusker could be enough to give him a leg up over Keirsey for the fourth outfield job when Buxton eventually returns to the roster, particularly considering that his right-handed bat would be a better complement for the lefty-swinging Larnach.
When when when Minnesota will you make this man a full time dh. It’s so frustrating it’s painful.
He’s shown over the last few years that he can’t hit when he’s DH full time
He’s also shown he can’t play period if he’s in the outfield. I’m taking healthy vs athletic here. Let him focus on the bat and enjoy the production you can get with it.
When the twins tried putting him at full time DH he became a nuisance on the field, and still got injured
Would you rather have 70 games of elite defense and decent hitting or 70 games of no defense and bad hitting
He’s shown over the years he can’t hit consistently, period. His big hitting strides are mostly all small sample sizes. Biggest hype for a guy who will probably hit .240 or .250 the whole season, if he doesn’t get injured.
Yea. He’s only been slugging well over 500 for like 6 out of 7 years. Sounds like a small sample to me. Definitely a fluke. And for all the injuries he still is an excellent runner. Honestly he’s one of the best players in the world while also being one of the best at getting hurt. But he gets his games in. He’s gonna be there over half the season every year. And he’s gonna hit.
He’s not a fluke. He is decent, but he’s not the almighty one people make him out to be. I still think he’d be a wasted DH spot. And he has not had over 500 plate appearances in a single year. He’s only reached close to 500 once I believe, so sample sizes aren’t really in your favor.
But if you want to look at his career, fine. I can’t fathom a career .245 hitter with a career .312 OBP being one of “the best hitters in the world.” That is ridiculous.
You brought up slugging over 500 but left out everything else, so quit seeing the forest for the trees.
I said best players not best hitters. You are bringing up his career stats when obviously if you look he was not the same player early on in his career. Those numbers drag him down immensely (over.270 last 500 AB for instance). He was brought up very young because of the tools (at the least defense was gonna be there). Why does it matter if he has 500 ABs in a season in regard to whether or not he’d be a good DH? I do have the sample size in my favor. We are talking about well over 1000 ABs. You actually bring up little while I brought up more. How much does AVG tell you about a player? Those career numbers could be 2025 Nick Allen but we would fail to mention he is not remotely like Allen because he has tremendous power. A great base runner too. The average is at worst average. The only thing we can say is the OBP isnt very high. That’s nit picking. If you wanna say he always gets hurt I agree but I am speaking purely on performance when he does play and he’s been playing at MVP levels if you project them out over a full year. So you have an MVP for at least half a season. I can live with that. Perhaps because he doesn’t steal many bases you don’t realize how fast he is and how big of an asset it is in the field and on the bases. And when he does steal he never gets caught practically. Combining that kind of speed with very good power is a game changer.
I don’t know if I’d go that far as to call him decent. He is an INCREDIBLY streaky offensive player kinda like Correa who’s also very streaky offensively. For the first month and a half of each season both Buxton and Correa are typically sub .200 hitters and this has been the case the past 3 to 4 years. I can’t remember one season (with the Twins) where both players started the year hitting well, EVER.
Correa still hasn’t gotten completely out of the funk he was in before the concussion and just in the last 10 or so games was FINALLY showing some life in his bat.
Either way neither player deserves the contract they got, especially the cheater Correa.
Whether they deserve it or not doesn’t interest me. I’m not gonna put a guy down because he is getting hurt. But Buxton makes (I think) $15M per year. While this may be a lot for the Twins it is Charlie Morton money. It’s what you pay a back end starter or a of couple decent relievers. He’s worth it if he plays half the year. Ultimately lots of hitters are generally slow starters and lots are streaky. We can debate how well it balances out perhaps but the numbers have been there every year outside of one for like 7 years now. If you are frustrated with the Twins payroll I can understand.
I don’t really care if the statement about them being worth the contract doesn’t interest you, That’s simply my perspective in comparison to other player’s performances with similar salaries. For a middle market franchise like the Twins it IS a legitimate point of contention and potentially crippling. The Twins can’t afford two effectively part-time players (literally every year) consuming 1/3 of their payroll which is in the 140 million range.
I mean it doesn’t interest me because of the word “deserve”. You can say they arent worth it. We can say we wish they were gone. But I’m not some higher authority that determines who deserves what. Statistically he is worth $15M per year. The front office gave it to him. If they wanted to they could probably trade that contract.
If salaries were reset every year and based on performance he would definitely get at least $15M. So in that sense he deserves it. It is merely a matter of the team he plays for needing more out of that money. That’s not his fault. I’m sure he’d prefer to not get hurt.
@HEHE I agree limiting him to DH would help mitigate risk of injury with him. However he’s been a pure DH before and still managed to get hurt.
Sad to think what could ve been up until now had he been able to stay healthy more throughout his career.
Because you don’t make an elite defensive center fielder a DH.
You also don’t make a career .245 hitter a full time DH.
.245 is the modern day equivalent to .275 in the late 90s or early 2000s
Plus Buxton is a ~75 runner and has enough power to mirror judges’ output in that small Yankee band box park , Aaron gets to play 1/2 his games in
Hate to break it to you, but this ain’t the late 90’s or 2000’s, and if you’re comparing his average to the average twenty years ago, let’s also compare the speedy guys who have better averages than Buxton’s .245 to 90’s and 00’s stats so we can see their batting averages also inflate.
Point is, it’s faulty logic. If you’re comparing .245 to .275, let’s also compare the several others who have better than .245, and you find your argument nowhere.
Buxton is a decent batter at best and he has strides of extroadinary hitting. But, when you put all his streaks together, he’s just decent. We know he has speed, but so do several others, and many others utilize it without being injury prone
I am not trying to say Buxton is a bad player, I’m simply acknowledging he is not the baseball god that the people have painted him out to be for the last ten years.
@arby I’d call Buxton a potentially elite CF. He has never provided a full season of elite defense. Twins still play the games he misses.
Byron buxton try not to get injured challenge (100% impossible)
Not his fault
It isn’t, but the Twins should expect it
The collision with Correa was all Buxton’s fault. It was shallow and he should have let Correa have it.
It doesn’t sound like darinc has ever played baseball. It was Buxton’s ball. He called off Correa, though Correa heard it late. Buxton caught the ball while Correa attempted to get out of his way. After Buxton caught the ball he also made a move to avoid Correa. Unfortunately, they collided while attempting to avoid the collision. It happens pretty often, but Buxton and Correa were victims of bad luck in that they both hit their heads hard. But just as Correa knew to give way to Buxton, albeit at the last second, a fly ball to the outfield is the outfielder’s ball.
LMAO, I know the CF has the right to the ball, it’s just that it wasn’t very deep and Correa was already there.
In other news, grass is green.
That play was Correa’s fault. As soon as Burton called for it, Correa needed to stop and peel off out of his way. He kept going backwards and ran right into him. Tough break for both players.
Yeah, I watched Elly do a similar thing the other day…
Correa lacks baseball IQ
Where was Royce Lewis when this happened?
Going to guess it’ll be Wallner to the 60 day IL?
This is the first time I’ve read anything about McCusker where the writer hasn’t mentioned that he’s 6’8”. That enormous fact makes his story so much more interesting. When he’s first in the lineup, he’s got to be close to being the tallest position player to appear in an MLB game.
i immediately thought of richie sexson but he was 6’7
McCusker prediction:
1 – 20 in first 20 abs
1 Hr
3 Of assists
15 K’s