As the Twins deal with injuries to star players Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis, they appear to be on the verge of getting Byron Buxton back from the injured list.
Buxton will be the designated hitter for the Triple-A St. Paul Saints on Thursday night and he is expected to get three or four at-bats. How long his newest rehab stint will last is unknown, but the Saints’ season ends on Sunday so if all goes well Buxton should be expected back with the Twins any day now.
Buxton has not played for the Twins since suffering a strained hamstring on Aug. 1. He then dealt with pain in his right knee when he was on a rehab stint with the Saints on Sept. 1, further delaying his return to the Twins.
A little over a week ago Buxton received a cortisone injection to help with the issue in his knee. At the time, Twins head trainer Nick Paparesta said he was confident that Buxton would play again this season, perhaps even in the outfield for the first time in more than a year.
“We’re anticipating him working his way back and taking the field for us,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Sept. 8.
Buxton was slashing .207/.294/.438 with 17 home runs and 42 RBI before his departure in August, though he had shown signs of heating up, going 9 of 24 at the plate with two homers and five doubles in seven games prior to the hamstring injury.
Meanwhile, Lewis is considered day-to-day with a hamstring issue of his own and Carlos Correa is eligible to return from the injured list for the final regular season series against the Rockies next week. If all three are able to play in the playoffs (Game 1 of the Wild Card series is Oct. 3), the lineup might look a little something like this…
- Eddy Julien, DH
- Jorge Polanco, 2B
- Royce Lewis, 3B
- Max Kepler, RF
- Carlos Correa, SS
- Byron Buxton, CF
- Alex Kirilloff, 1B
- Matt Waller, LF
- Ryan Jeffers, C
That would leave Donovan Solano, Willi Castro, Kyler Farmer, Michael A. Taylor and Christian Vazquez on the bench, with Andrew Stevenson and Trevor Larnach unlikely to make the postseason roster. But because the MLB playoff roster can only include 26 players, the Twins would probably hope to go with 13 position players and 13 pitchers, so one of Solano, Castro, Farmer or Taylor would need to be left off the roster, too.
Big decisions loom and the health of the team will determine everything.
