For months I have been tweeting that the Minnesota Twins
need to pay Byron Buxton. There has never been a point at which that should have
been anything close to an uncertainty. Today, it became reality.
The Twins centerfielder has received MVP votes twice in his
career. He has an .887 OPS over the past three seasons, and he was barreling
towards and MVP award prior to injury this past season. Therein lies the rub.
Minnesota was only in a position to sign their superstar thanks to his injury
history. Missing games is the reason Buxton wouldn’t have received the $300
million payday in free agency, and it’s the necessary push needed to negotiate
an extension with the mid-market club.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece for Twins Daily
looking at the parallels between Buxton and Minnesota’s last mega-star, Joe
Mauer. The hometown hero was paid $184 million because of his exploits prior to
injury, and then denigrated in his later years because of them. On the flip
side, Buxton is being shorted because of his injury history and leaves the
Twins ample opportunity to experience value-based riches in the future.
Just two seasons ago this same front office paid a 34-year-old
Josh Donaldson $100 million for four seasons. He’s dealt with chronic calf
issues for much of his later career and they still took that gamble. Nabbing a
28-year-old star in Buxton for that same amount and tacking on an additional
three years is nothing short of larceny.
We can go rounds as to whether Buxton is injury-prone or a byproduct
of unfortunate circumstance. There was a time he was running into walls and his
all-out style had him in precarious positions. Breaking a bone after being hit
by a pitch or suffering a concussion following a dive onto grass certainly
shouldn’t be assumed as indicative of future issues. No matter what happens, Byron
would be the first person to wish for a clean bill of health, even while not
being able to reap the rewards of a payday it would produce.
There’s been plenty of reason to question this front office
and the noise that’s been made public regarding roster construction over the
past few months. This extension alone was the largest opportunity to call the
offseason a failure and is now done and over with. It’s time they continue to
supplement around a lineup bolstered with talent, and that remains to be seen.
No matter what happens from here though, they paid the man.