MINNEAPOLIS — For all the evidence that Byron Buxton has had an All-Star season, the supporting statistics start and end with this simple number: 73.
That’s the total of games in which the Minnesota Twins have had their dynamic center fielder in the starting lineup, putting him on pace for the second-most of his 11-year career. Availability has long been the elusive piece to make Buxton one of the most complete players in the major leagues, and his age-31 season has brought a fresh wave of all-around production fueled by good health.
“It’s a monumental return,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s been one of the top players in baseball. To be able to get prime Buxton, basically every day, that’s a whole different deal. When you actually see it and you actually get it, and it’s in front of you every day, it’s a beautiful thing.”
His second All-Star Game selection will go down as one of his greatest satisfactions in the sport, considering the path he’s taken to get here and the fact that the festivities next week will be in his native Georgia.
“Going back home to do something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I know I’m not going to play 30 more years to get back to Atlanta,” said Buxton, who was previously an All-Star in 2022 when the game was in Los Angeles.
Family was front of mind when Buxton was informed he’d made the team. His youngest of three sons, Baire, wasn’t born when he went the last time. The host site this year at Truist Park, the home of the Braves, is about a three-hour drive from his tiny hometown, Baxley. Then there’s his participation in the Home Run Derby, which will fulfill the wish of his oldest son, 11-year-old Brix, to deliver a towel and a drink during his breaks.
“Out of everybody there, all the people he’s going to see, that’s what he wants and cares about. So it’s the small things that add up to the big ones,” Buxton said.
With five of his 20 home runs leading off the game for the Twins, Buxton has 14 career leadoff homers to tie Chuck Knoblauch for the fourth-most in Twins history. He’s also one of only six players in the major leagues this season with at least 15 homers and 15 steals.
Buxton ranks among the top 10 batters in the American League in slugging percentage, OPS, triples, homers, runs, RBIs and steals, plus a number of other advanced statistics while providing his usual Gold Glove-caliber defense in center. He is 16 for 16 on stolen-base attempts, too, as sure of a sign his hips and knees are as healthy as ever. With 109 steals in 121 career attempts, Buxton is the only player in Major League Baseball history with more than 100 attempts and a 90% or better success rate.
His home run on June 11 was measured at 479 feet, the second-longest in MLB this season and the longest of his career. The only setback was a concussion that cost him 11 games in May, stemming from an outfield collision with teammate Carlos Correa. After topping the 100-game mark in 2024 for only the second time in his career, Buxton has not only built on that injury-prevention progress but experienced the full benefits of being consistently healthy enough to play. Only twice has Baldelli slotted Buxton as the designated hitter this year.
“Once you get those at-bats and get back into the groove of things, you tend to start taking off,” Buxton said.
The Twins, who took a 43-47 record into their three-game series against the Chicago Cubs, would be in big trouble without him.
“He does it at the highest level, everything he does,” Correa said. “He’s fun. He’s electric, full of energy, and our team needs that.”