More than six years after taking Aaron Sabato in the first round of the 2020 draft, the Twins finally called up the now-27-year-old organizational soldier for his big-league debut Monday. It's a moment the former University of North Carolina star had become convinced might never arrive after his prospect stock crashed.
]]>Byron Buxton's season is officially over, as the Twins announced that the All-Star center fielder will undergo arthroscopic right hip surgery on September 18 for an injury that has affected him since 2021 and specifically lingered, off and on, since tweaking it in mid-May. He'll end up missing the Twins' final 29 games.
Buxton was able to avoid the injured list while playing through pain for most of a fantastic first half in which he hit .271/.328/.575 with 25 homers in 75 games and was voted an All-Star starter for the first time at 32. But he went on the IL a week before the break in mid-July and was basically never healthy again.
]]>Collapsing after the All-Star break for the third straight season means the Twins fell short of their oft-stated goal to "play meaningful games in September" unless you squint really, really hard. Their playoff odds, which rose to nearly 40 percent after buying at the trade deadline, have sunk to 2 percent with 16 games left.
It's over. Not only does ending with a .500 record now appear out of reach given that it would require finishing 12-4, the Twins unraveled so thoroughly by going an AL-worst 13-22 since August 1 that they're no longer even on pace to surpass their 78-win preseason projections from FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus.
There are plenty of reasons for why the Twins failed to climb — and stay — above .500 this season and ultimately ran out of gas long before the finish line. Here are my picks for five of the biggest reasons, including more that should be blamed on bad decisions than on bad luck.
Byron Buxton was placed on the injured list Sunday for the third time in the past two months with the same right hip injury that's bothered him, off and on, since May. Twins officials insist Buxton still has a chance to play again this season, but general manager Jeremy Zoll also revealed offseason surgery may be needed.
"(Surgery's) definitely a potential option as we sort through everything," Zoll said. "It would be some type of hip procedure, but we're not at that point right now."
Buxton aggravated the hip injury at least a half-dozen times this season. Early on, he avoided the IL and returned to the lineup after a handful of days off, but that's become increasingly untenable and it's obvious Buxton is dealing with something more significant than a typical strain. He's also had hip issues in previous years.
Buxton was rarely at full strength in the first half, but he still managed to play 75 games and hit .271/.328/.575 with 25 homers to get voted in as an All-Star starter for the first time. However, the injury caused him to miss the All-Star Game, and he's played just 18 of 42 post-break games while hitting .172 with no homers.
Buxton aggravated his season-long hip injury on August 25 and hasn't played since.
It took Buxton being shut down for the Twins to call up Walker Jenkins, who has taken over as the starting center fielder and enabled Luke Keaschall to shift back to right field. Jenkins' ability to handle center field also figures to be key for 2027, especially if a Buxton surgery puts his status for Opening Day in any question.
Twins fans searching for some reason to be optimistic about Buxton's admittedly worrisome situation should think back to 2023, when he was strictly a designated hitter because of a right knee injury. He mostly struggled before being shut down in August and later underwent surgery to remove the plica/membrane flap.
There was tons of uncertainty surrounding Buxton then, with some concern that he wouldn't be able to return to center field. But the surgery fixed the years-long problem, alleviating pain and enabling Buxton to resume playing center field. And the 2.5 seasons that followed are arguably the best, healthiest time of his career.
Buxton, who turns 33 in December, has two more years left on his contract, with matching $15 million salaries for 2027 and 2028. It's worth noting $15 million is no longer one of MLB's highest 100 salaries and Buxton's production this season (3.3 bWAR, 2.6 fWAR) exceeded $15 million in value despite playing just 93 games.
Next season's outfield plan could be very interesting. Keaschall still needs to find a long-term fit defensively, but he's batted .301/.401/.442 in 99 games since May 1 and looks like an ideal leadoff hitter. Jenkins is presumably in the majors to stay, with everyday playing time being logical for an elite prospect.
Fellow league-wide top-100 prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez will be out of minor-league options despite having yet to reach the majors, so he would need to be on the Opening Day roster to stay in the organization. Trevor Larnach will again be a non-tender candidate with a raise to around $8 million due via arbitration.
Alan Roden will also be in the outfield mix unless the Twins have already soured on the 26-year-old acquired in last deadline's Louis Varland trade. It sure seems like they've soured on 28-year-old Matt Wallner, who never got another chance following a May demotion to Triple-A. He's likely to play elsewhere in 2027.
]]>Two weeks into an injured list stint for the right hip strain that has bothered him for much of the season, Byron Buxton worked out on the field pregame Monday. Buxton ran the bases and in the outfield, with Twins head trainer Nick Paparesta looking on, and also took rare on-field batting practice against a surprise pitcher.
]]>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."
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.
]]>Byron Buxton had managed to avoid the injured list this season despite missing a handful of games on several occasions, but that came to an end Tuesday with the Twins shutting him down through the All-Star break. Buxton, who aggravated his strained hip over the weekend, is eligible to return for the second-half opener.
Unfortunately, it also means that Buxton won't be able to play in the Midsummer Classic after being voted in as an All-Star starter for the first time. But timing the IL stay around the break allows the Twins to minimize his games missed and give Buxton his first extended rest for an injury that's lingered, off and on, since May.
"It's not as bad as it was, but it's still bad," general manager Jeremy Zoll said. "And the best thing at this point is probably just to give it clear downtime to let it fully resolve itself, so that he's not in this in-between state and can feel fully confident hopefully for a full second half."
Buxton will end the first half having played 75 of a possible 97 games, putting him on pace for 125 games after playing 126 games last season. He's hit .271/.328/.575 for a 146 OPS+ that ranks sixth in the American League and he leads the Twins in homers (25), OPS (.903), runs scored (57), and WAR (3.1).
Triple-A outfielder Alan Roden was called up to replace Buxton on the roster and the left-handed hitter is expected to play regularly versus right-handed pitching, likely while seeing some action in center field. Roden, who was acquired from the Blue Jays in the Louis Varland trade, hit .272/.397/.512 in 33 games for St. Paul.
]]>Mick Abel was on the verge of coming off the injured list and rejoining the Twins' rotation, as soon as Sunday versus the Diamondbacks in Arizona. Instead, the 24-year-old right-hander was shut down Saturday following the latest setback in his recovery from elbow problems that have sidelined him since mid-April.
]]>Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll provided a whole slew of injury updates prior to Monday's game, covering big leaguers and prospects. Rather than try to force them into some kind of narrative story, and risk leaving anything out that may be of interest to completists, I'm going to give you everything Zoll gave us.
Just be warned: It's a long list. OK, ready?
Zoll classified the Ober diagnosis as relatively good news, given the wide range of possibilities and his previous Tommy John surgery in 2015. "When the (past) graft is intact, and it's in the flexor area, it's relatively mild," Zoll said. "In the spectrum of outcomes, we're feeling encouraged."
]]>Bailey Ober going on the injured list with right elbow inflammation after allowing eight runs Saturday versus the Pirates, and multiple homers in three consecutive starts, puts yet another big dent in the Twins' once-touted rotation depth. It also came just a day after Simeon Woods Richardson was designated for assignment.
When spring training began in February, the Twins believed their rotation depth chart went at least a dozen deep in viable options for 2026, including eight MLB-ready starters with some previous big-league experience and four quality starter prospects waiting in the wings at Triple-A St. Paul.
Now the Twins are just 60 games into a 162-game season, and look what injuries and/or ineffectiveness have done to those dozen starters:
]]>Good teams can sometimes win despite a rash of injuries. But for a team like the Twins, who already had such a slim margin for error coming into the season and were widely projected for a losing record, poor health often slams the door shut on any hopes of a competitive year in a way that just seems cruel.
First the Twins lost All-Star starter Pablo López to a season-ending elbow injury on the first day of spring training, followed shortly by starter David Festa getting shut down with lingering shoulder problems. In-season injuries to Mick Abel and Taj Bradley took another chunk out of the rotation's once-touted depth.
During the opening quarter of the season, the position players were remarkably healthy, but now that luck has run out, too. Ryan Jeffers suffered a fractured left hamate bone Monday and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks following wrist surgery, bringing the 28-year-old impending free agent's career-year to a screeching halt.
"It's completely out of my control," Jeffers said. "It doesn't matter how much I'd prepared my body to be healthy and get ready for the season. This is something that was just going to happen. I don’t think it puts a damper on anything I was doing. There’s a chance I'm back in 4 1/2, five weeks, and ready to rip again."
]]>Any realistic notion of the Twins being competitive this year was based on their starting pitching carrying an otherwise underwhelming roster. Going into spring training, they had what they thought was excellent rotation depth, featuring All-Stars Joe Ryan and Pablo López at the top, and eight total MLB-ready options.
It's what team officials touted throughout the offseason as the reason for fans to believe, it's what projection systems identified as the Twins' biggest — and, really, only — clear strength, and it's what gave some hope that the weakness of a shaky bullpen could be minimized with a lighter reliever workload.
And it lasted around three hours. López went down with a season-ending elbow injury on the first morning of full-squad workouts. Shortly after that, David Festa was shut down with a return of last season's shoulder issues, from which there's still no return timeline.
Despite losing López and Festa prior to even breaking camp, the Twins' rotation fared remarkably well in the early going, signaling that perhaps starting pitching could be a strength after all. Through the end of April, the rotation ranked No. 6 in innings, No. 8 in ERA, and No. 12 in Win Probability Added out of 30 teams.
In particular, the emergence of 25-year-old Taj Bradley and 24-year-old Mick Abel, both of whom were acquired at last July's trade deadline, provided much-needed optimism for the present and future rotation. Sadly, that was also short-lived, with Bradley and Abel now joining López and Festa on the injured list.
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