Twins center fielder Byron Buxton is in the midst of the finest season of his career, having been named to the All-Star team (and selected to compete in the Home Run Derby) after hitting .289/.351/.574 with 21 homers and 17 steals through 78 games (333 plate appearances). With the Twins underperforming as a whole and the team facing payroll constraints, some fans have hoped and wondered whether Buxton might become available via trade. The outfielder put any such talk to bed at this week’s All-Star festivities.
“I’ve got a no-trade clause,” Buxton said after being asked about the possibility of perhaps someday playing for his hometown Braves (link via Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune). “I’m a Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life. That’s the best feeling in the world, knowing when I walk into the clubhouse every day, it’s going to say Twins. I love Minnesota — that’s home. … I don’t want to play anywhere else. The team, the people, the city — they made me who I am and made me a part of it there.”
Buxton’s no-trade clause was a known element of his contract, but it’s hardly uncommon to see players waive their no-trade protection. There’s no such consideration for the 31-year-old Buxton, it seems.
We’re at the midway point of Buxton’s seven-year, $100MM extension with Minnesota. That contract bought out Buxton’s final year of arbitration eligibility and locked in six free-agent seasons at $15MM annually. The on-field results have been excellent thus far, with the former No. 2 overall pick hitting .250/.321/.516 with 84 homers, 39 steals and plus center field defense so far — save for the 2023 season, when he was limited to DH work due to ongoing knee troubles. (He underwent a second knee surgery following that season.)
The caveat with Buxton, of course, is that said production has come in a limited capacity. He’s long stood out as one of the game’s most talented but also most frequently injured players. Some of that stems from the reckless abandon with which he plays defense, but Buxton has suffered injuries on all sides of the game over his career. He’s only reached 100 games played in a season on two occasions and has only once accrued more than 400 plate appearances in a season.
The frequency of Buxton’s injuries played a role in dictating the unique nature of his contract. He’s being paid $15MM per year from 2023-28 but can boost that number all the way to $25.5MM based on plate appearances and MVP voting in any given season. The contract pays Buxton a $3MM bonus if he finishes between sixth and tenth in MVP voting, $4MM bonus for finishing fifth, $5MM bonus for finishing fourth, $6MM for finishing third, $7MM for second and $8MM for winning an MVP Award. He also receives a $500K bonus for reaching each of 502, 533, 567, 600 and 625 plate appearances in a given season.
So far, those incentives have yet to come into play, although he’s well on his way to locking in some extra earnings in 2025 if he can remain on the field. Buxton ranks sixth in the American League in WAR, per Baseball-Reference, and is tied with Houston’s Jeremy Pena for seventh in FanGraphs’ version. He’s been on an absolute tear of late as well, hitting .343/.408/.741 with 11 homers over his past 120 plate appearances (including a five-hit game in which he completed the cycle in the penultimate game of the season’s unofficial first half).
Translation: I LOVE LOSING !
Strange what 100 million dollars and getting to be around people you love every day allow you to “tolerate” for 6 years of your time isn’t it?
Buxton is a man of character and commitment. He spent his minor league days crashing into unpadded outfield walls, and has paid the price. I’m not a Twins fan and would love to have Buxton on my team, but I give him a lot of credit for being a man of his word even in the good times. He’s the face of the franchise.
Translation: Please someone come trade for me….
Translation: I love the stability and you have absolutely no F****ng say in my career choices. Boundaries bruh. You have none. BEISBALL is a miserable F.
just mute him.
😂
The Twin Cities have long had a way of keeping Twins veterans around…even long past retirement.
Right.
Like Kaat, Perry, Tovar, Carew, Bostock, Hisle, Hunter, Santana, Morneau, Cuddyer, Brunansky….
Bostock never got to retire. It’s rare for anyone to stay with just one team, but the Twins have some pretty good ones who did.
Oliva, Puckett, Mauer, Hrbek, Radke, Perkins
Carew and Tony Oliva come to every single Twins Spring training
ROD CAREW IS a 100% Twin just ask him
Happy wife, happy life. I’m from Minnesota and you can see his love for our state when he talks about it. Honored to have him play for us.
The Twins have been 809-805 in Buxton’s 10 seasons. That’s perfectly normal for a mid market team, and better than a lot of players can hope for. But why do five minutes of research when you can be snarky AND stupid all in one, right?!
459-391 in games he’s played. Dude is a difference maker
That’s said by some couch potato who couldn’t even sniff the opportunity to win or lose in MLB.
I’ll waive my no trade clause for $$$$$. Dont love them that much is my guess.
Too bad for the Twins. This is the highest his value will be
They don’t need to blow their whole team up. Not a good year for them, but he’s not very expensive, and I’m sure they wanna compete next year. Bux is a very solid hitter, but he’s been very injury prone, so I’m skeptical that the return would be better than just continuing to let him rake.
Not really.
Buxton has always been good when he’s on the field, his medicals aren’t all of a sudden good because of this health stretch.
No team can pencil him in for 120 gp a year, so his value isn’t moving much
Spot on. Dude has over 400ABs once in his career. Twins FO would love to move that contract at this juncture.
That contract is a pittance based on current performance. It’s nothing on an annual basis for high performers. The FO has to be thrilled.
I think it’s a pretty fair contract honestly.
You can’t guarantee that… his value could be higher this time in ’26
He’s so hot of miss you have got to get him at dh over of to make him viable long term.
Love Byron though and the twins owe it to him to keep him healthy.
Super talented but if there was ever a player that was DUE for a season ending injury, it would sadly be him.
Take that back, Mondesi’s- Byron is on all 3 of my fantasy teams.
But you can only be NWO 4-Life and that’s just 2 SWEET.
But seriously he’s from Baxley GA he’s a small town boy loyal to a fault he’s humble and stayed true to his roots married his high school sweet heart bought his mom up out of poverty so he’s not gonna leave the only team he’s ever known unless he absolutely has to.
A lot people talking smack here but it’s nice to see a player wanting to play out his career with one team as that has gotten so rare in this day and age
*A lot of couch potato losers…
I agree completely. As a Rockies fan, I LOVED that Charlie Blackmon stayed and ended his career in Colorado. The memories of his final games is helluva lot better than adding some Class A prospect that will probably never amount to anything.
I like By Bux, but it’s not like he’s a Yankee or a Dodger (I’m not a fan of either, BTW). He wants to be in Minnesota the rest of his career? I don’t even want to visit there.
You’ll like it even less after next election when Minneapolis elects a foreign born, avowed America-loathing, Caucasian-hating mayor.
You must not be well travelled or incredibly shallow if LA and NY are desirable places. Minneapolis is one of the nicer cities to live in.
* Was
Sadly the current political climate in Minnesota has largely ruined what was once a great Duo City (st paul)
The state? Awesome people and small towns with amazing and nice people everywhere… the Twin Cities ? a far cry from a good place to live anymore. unless u know the makeup of the area well enough.
The far left has taken over the bigger cities and have done nothing but Implement strange things , laws , places , and people within them since
By the way I do not condone the democratic party at all, if you couldn’t tell
Don’t worry. There’s not going to be too many teams looking to trade for a player who has only played 100 plus games twice in 10 years.
Dodgers sound perfect for him.
You are funny.
Yeah people hate players that average 5.5 war per 162. He’s healthy, someone would EASILY give up a top 100 prospect for him
Per 162 means absolutely nothing when you’ve only averaged 77 games a season in your first 10 seasons lol.
Bruh look at your user name
If he were actually available, most teams in the league would be interested. He put up 3.6 WAR last season and he’s already at 4.2 WAR this season. And he only makes a little over $15 million a year with three years of control left. People love to be negative but Buxton would be highly coveted if he was available.
I’ll never understand why fans have become so obsessed with WAR.
It’s nothing more than a stat that guesses what a players worth is.
Because it’s a comprehensive stat which estimates the number of additional games a team has won during the season because of the subject player vs. playing the league’s typical AAA replacement in that spot. It’s based on the number of runs a player is expected to produces at the plate or prevents when playing defense.
Buxton’s a 5-6 WAR player in a full season (which never happens). So for a team with a AAAA outfielder playing center field and a record of 85-77, they would have been 90-72 with a healthy Buxton.
That’s a whole lot of typing that can be summed up with Buxton = 5.0 WAR.
WAR combines stuff from actual production to “the eye test” but when stats can follow every single plate appearance and defensive opportunity a player has when a typical fan sees only some of what’s happening.
I’m sorry are people still unclear of WARs value in here? It feels like i just walked into a thread from 2011, wow
I’m not sure it’s so much it’s value that’s in question. It more a matter of people’s blind overreliance on something half of them don’t even understand.
If people are going to be blind on stats but still use them, WAR is about the best stat to be blind about haha.
Bummer that the one year he’s healthy and playing well, the team isn’t really doing anything.
How dare he be loyal? Loving the team, the fans, and the city?! Being disloyal seems to be the trend these days…
Sometimes I cry myself to sleep. I left the team that made me who I was all for my wife’s wishes. I miss Chipper!
Still stayed with my team even after consecutive losing seasons. Finally paid off… only to have losing seasons again.
Only marginally on topic but: why are award voting incentives permissible but home run totals, for example, are not? What is the distinction?
Contracts aren’t allowed to have specific statistical achievements incentives.
there was a year, not too long ago, when Brian Dozier hit 42 home runs for a terrible Twins team. most of those 42 home runs were solo shots late I. 10-3, 9-1, 11-2 losses. and, he pumped his fist as he rounded the bases. that is why you don’t incentivize home runs. current twin Matt Wallner has 10 home runs and 16 rbi. when there are runners on base, he’s a strikeout machine. way ahead, or way behind? watch that home run into the upper deck off the opponent’s 7th man in the bullpen.
the sport needs more players like Buxton.
Heck yeah and I’m a Buxton fan for life too!! I hope my my man Buck gets a statue in his honor after he hangs them up, absolute legend!
Statue will probably get a crack in it right after they put it up and will need to be rehabbed.
Admirable. I hope he stays healthy for the rest of his career to see a true power-speed threat.
It’s July 16th and the Twins are only 4 games out of a Wild Card spot despite not having Pablo Lopez. They are not years away from being legitimate contenders and will be sold to new ownership sooner than later. Why would they dismantle the team now?
Is playing roughly .500 ball in a floundering division, with a 10% shot at grabbing the last wildcard in an expanded playoff format really “legitimately contending”?
Ask me again on Sept 1st or Spring Training 2026 when there is new ownership and a few missing ingredients added.
Loyalty to his club I respect this. I think at 35 though he will change his mind but I respect this….
You can’t spell “Life” without IL
I am a big believer that playing your entire career with one team is a tremendous acheivement. It will be interesting to see if the Twins honor his loyalty in ’29, it will be his age 36 season.
I know Kirby played on some good teams, but Buxton gives off huge Kirby vibes as a player.
Other than the fact Kirby was NEVER on the DL until his eye blew up 12 seasons in
Good for him. Plus, why give up the chance for a good jucy Lucy at Matt’s.
I’ve bashed him endlessly in my mind whenever his name shows up on here. But I will give him credit for wanting to remain with one team for his career.
Sign his replacement, tell him to play 1B, and bad mouth his dedication to the team with the media, and trade him to San Francisco.
He is a more successful Lastings Milledge but will end up just being fringe player that the Twins will love but will be a forgotten player in 10 years.
Unhinged comment
Wouldn’t trade for him unless you want your trainers to never have a day off.
We forget that these guys are human. They have WAGs, who may like stability. Kids, homes, routines, personal doctors, dentists, tax advisers — you name it. If they get to the point where they can control their destinies, they deserve that stability. All of them, not just Buxton.
Too bad for the Twins. Now, or this coming offseason, would be the time to trade him. He’s not going to remain healthy. He’ll be 32 next season and his speed-dependent skills will decline.
Great to see what he can do when healthy with sustained momentum — jinx jinx jinx
Translation. I have a no trade clause and want to be here, until you start talking about an extension.
Byron Buxton the man with no ill intentions.
The man who also averages probably 70 games a season, and yet will ammass more career wAr , anyway than 90% of New york Yankee CF’s