Buxton lands on 10-day IL with knee inflammation

MINNEAPOLIS -- There was something telling that Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said on Friday that perhaps draws back some of the curtains on the lens through which Byron Buxton’s knee situation is more realistically viewed now.

“I think he’s been in a good spot physically,” Baldelli said. “I don’t think he’s been close to 100 percent, but that’s not really the question at this point.”

Not close to 100 percent, but good enough to play -- that is, until the stress test of stolen-base attempts on three consecutive pitches in Chicago on Wednesday caused inflammation in Buxton’s twice surgically repaired right knee to flare up. That led to his exit from the game, and, ultimately, a placement on the 10-day IL for right knee inflammation on Friday.

What appears to be good news for the Twins is that there’s no structural damage to the knee, according to president of baseball operations Derek Falvey. Baldelli and Falvey indicated that Buxton is expected to spend close to the minimum 10 days on the IL, perhaps up to two weeks, simply waiting for the inflammation and tenderness to subside.

But for all the optimism this spring about Buxton having a normal ramp-up from his second consecutive offseason knee surgery and being ready to play center field on Opening Day, the fact is that the knee has already presented itself as an issue again in May -- not a serious issue, but something they’ve needed to deal with nonetheless.

Falvey characterized this issue as “a little different” than the more acute issues of the past, leading to an arthroscopic cleanup surgery on the knee in September 2022 and a plica excision surgery in October 2023 -- but acknowledged there’s no way to be confident that knee issues won’t flare up again down the line.

“I don't know that anything prohibits something coming back for any injury,” Falvey said. “But for him, in this case, we feel like where he's at today, we caught it at a time where we can get him some treatment and hopefully get him back on the field soon.”

Once Buxton returns, Baldelli said his usage of the center fielder likely wouldn’t change much in an effort to keep him on the field -- and that seems to track with how they’ve talked about and handled the situation since the start of Spring Training.

At this point, it seems that if Buxton is good enough to play -- and they expect him to be soon -- he’ll be used like a normal player, and they’ll just handle any issues as they come up.

“Maybe if there’s something that irritates him, we’ll try to avoid doing whatever that particular thing is,” Baldelli said. “But we know and he knows that it is Major League Baseball. … You can’t tippy-toe around the game. You have to play the game, and he knows that more than anybody. So we have to let him play.”

Perhaps that’s the lessons of the past educating the decisions of the present. They’ve tried in previous seasons to manage the knee in various ways -- perhaps “tippy-toeing” a bit more, so to speak. They’ve mixed in rest days and DH days in the past. Last season, they held Buxton to DH duties only, keeping him off the outfield grass altogether.

None of those preventive measures have ultimately proved successful in keeping Buxton on the field -- or feeling closer to 100 percent -- in the big picture, and indeed, the less consistent, DH-only at-bats actually worked to Buxton’s detriment last season when he couldn’t find a routine without the mental comfort of center field.

With the acknowledgement that Buxton hasn’t been at 100 percent, Baldelli still pointed to how his hitting seemed to be coming around of late, and his defense has been as good as usual back in center field.

“I think he’s pushed through on certain days to help us win even with him having to work and grind his way through some of the game,” Baldelli said. “He’s still been a very productive member of the team.”

And, above all, it just helps Buxton and his teammates for him to be on the field with them.

“He cares so much,” Baldelli said. “In his mind, he does not want to let anybody down and he wants to just say he’s fine. His initial reaction is always to say, ‘I’m good.’ When he can’t say, ‘I’m good,’ it hurts him, and we reached that point in the last game where he can’t say it.”