After a surprisingly strong 32-21 start to the season, the Minnesota Twins have cooled off, losing six of their last seven games through Friday’s action. The club needs a spark, so it called up top prospect Byron Buxton on Saturday.
According to the Twins’ official Twitter account, Buxton will be brought up from Double-A to make his Major League debut on Sunday:
The outfielder talked about getting the call, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press passed along more from Buxton:
Berardino also passed along comments from Twins manager Paul Molitor:
Buxton has been regarded as one of baseball’s best prospects since he was drafted second overall in 2012. He was ranked first on MLB.com’s top 100 list each of the last three seasons. Interestingly, the player who ranked second on that list for the 2015 season, Carlos Correa, was called up by Houston earlier this week.
Injuries did derail Buxton’s minor league output in 2014, as he only played in 31 games. He has been healthy this season, hitting .283/.351/.489 in 59 games with Double-A Chattanooga.
That overall stat line doesn’t immediately jump off the page, though context does help Buxton. He’s just 21 years old and caught fire after a slow start, per Aaron Gleeman of Hardball Talk:
Given the Buxton’s talent and how quickly he’s adapted to each new challenge the Twins have thrown at him, it shouldn’t take long for the former first-round pick to make his presence felt in Minnesota and the rest of the American League.
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