Kuzul

Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer is no longer the superstar he once was, which he revealed can be blamed partly on lingering symptoms from a concussion he suffered in 2013.

Speaking to Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press, Mauer said he still has bouts of blurred vision in the batter’s box. 

To combat the problem, he said he’ll use sunglasses while hitting: “I’ve always been kind of weird about my routine when it comes to stepping into the [batter’s] box, but it’s something I’ll give a shot this spring and see if it helps.”

Murphy added that Mauer will experiment with the shades during spring training, as the Twins will have their first workout February 22. The former American League MVP said he was first diagnosed with a concussion in August 2013 due to at least “two significant blows” from foul tips while he was catching. 

The Twins announced in November 2013 that Mauer was moving to first base on a full-time basis as a result of the concussion he suffered. He hasn’t been the same player the last two seasons as he was early in his career. 

Some of that drop-off in production can be attributed to a player in his early 30s in 2014 and 2015, but as recently as 2013, he posted a .324/.404/.476 slash line, so clearly something was not right for Mauer. 

Physically, the 32-year-old admitted there was a time after his concussion diagnosis when working out was a problem: 

Some of the exercises we tried to do last year, I’d come up and be like, ‘Whoa.’ Now it’s gradually getting better. I’m excited for that. That’s why I’m excited to get down there (to Fort Myers) and try some different things.

It could be a lot of things. There are so many different symptoms. For me it was lighting, I couldn’t really pick up the ball. It was blurry at times. Where I am here versus last year at this time, I can tell my workouts are better.

Even though lighting can seem like a silly issue for a hitter as talented as Mauer is, he provided a very sound reason why it does make a difference: “If you’re just a little off, you’re fouling off pitches you should be driving into the gap. In the big leagues, you don’t get too many more opportunities to see good ones to hit.”

The Twins shocked baseball pundits last year, winning 83 games and staying in the wild-card race until the final weekend. Their young talent is starting to make its presence felt in the big leagues, with Miguel Sano finishing third in AL Rookie of the Year voting and Byron Buxton getting integrated into the mix. 

If Sano and Buxton continue their evolution next season and Mauer plays closer to his 2013 level with a new approach and deeper understanding of what was wrong, the Twins will be a dangerous team in the American League.   

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In an era of baseball when right-handed power is at a premium, South Korean slugger Byung-ho Park figured to draw a lot of attention, with the Minnesota Twins winning the bidding rights to negotiate with the 29-year-old. 

Continue for updates. 

Park Reportedly Traveling to Minnesota

Saturday, Nov. 28

According to a report from Naver Sports, per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press, Park is flying to America on Sunday with a stop in Chicago before traveling to the Twin Cities. 

“From there, Park will head to the Twin Cities, where he is scheduled to meet with Twins officials and undergo a physical exam,” according to Berardino’s translation of the report. “If ‘negotiations proceed smoothly,’ the report states, Park could be introduced as the newest member of the Twins next week.”

Berardino did note that it is “unclear” if this means that Park has agreed to terms on a deal with the Twins or at least made progress on a contract. 

Twins general manager Terry Ryan said after the team won the bidding for Park with a $12.8 million posting fee that he was “hopeful of coming to an agreement,” per Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.

Park has been one of the premier sluggers in Korean baseball for years, posting a .343/.436/.714 line in 140 games last year with the Nexen Heroes. It’s not a one-to-one transition from the Korean Baseball Organization to Major League Baseball, but the Twins saw enough potential in the bat to put up a lot of money just to speak with him.

The Twins do have a logjam at first base and designated hitter right now, with Joe Mauer, Miguel Sano and Trevor Plouffe sharing time at the positions.

Park’s presence would create more chaos, though teams are never going to shy away from adding a bat and will worry about where to put someone when the problem arises. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Korean Baseball Organization has to be taken seriously.

The country’s premier baseball league’s last two significant imports have both produced at high major league levels, and now a third has the potential to be the best of the group.

On the heels of Hyun-jin Ryu and Jung-ho Kang, the KBO has posted its first potentially impactful power-hitting prospect in Byung-ho Park. The 29-year-old first baseman hit 53 home runs in the KBO last season, 52 the year before and was the league’s MVP in 2012 and 2013. He could recapture the award for the 2015 season.

During Major League Baseball’s general manager meetings last week, it was announced that the Minnesota Twins submitted the winning bid—$12.85 million—for the rights to negotiate a contract with Park. If the Twins cannot work out a deal with Park within 30 days from the time they won the bidding, which happened on Nov. 9, they will be refunded the bid and Park will return to Korea.

“Our evaluators think he can make the transition [to the majors],” Twins general manager Terry Ryan told John Shipley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “We’ve seen him play a lot and we think he can help lengthen our lineup and make it work out for everybody.” 

The KBO is known as a hitter-friendly league, but coming on the heels of Kang’s breakout 2015 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who posted a $5 million bid to negotiate with him, there is a more legitimate belief that Park can step into the majors and have a meaningful impact right away.

Kang, a former teammate of Park in Korea, was not seen as the kind of player who might finish third in National League Rookie of the Year voting when he finished his first spring training with the Pirates. He batted .200 with 17 strikeouts in 45 at-bats after hitting .356/.459/.739 the season before in the KBO. But after making the team’s Opening Day roster and eventually becoming its starting shortstop, Kang finished the season with a .287/.355/.461 with an .816 OPS and 124 OPS+.

Knowing it is possible for dominant KBO hitters to have success in the majors, Park is being looked at as more than just a player who would succeed in the minors. According to two MLB officials with teams that pursued Park, the exit velocities off his bat were on par with some of the best hitters in the majors, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported.

“The thought process from our scouts who have seen him extensively is that this guy has an outstanding chance to come over here and be a middle-of-the-order presence,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said on MLB Network last week. “We decided to pursue it mainly because it’s a big right-handed bat that we feel is going to play over here.”

Other successful KBO players have all been pitchers before Kang. Most recently it has been Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu, who has given his club a 3.14 ERA and 2.97 FIP over his two seasons. He missed last year with a shoulder injury, but during his first two years with the Dodgers, Ryu’s FanGraphs WAR was on the same level as ace Zack Greinke.

Of course, hitters are different and come with a different set of judging criteria. As an example, Eric Thames, who managed to play only two major league seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners, hit 47 homers in the KBO last season. Also, pitchers typically throw much slower in Korea. 

Park hit .343/.436/.714 with a 1.150 OPS last season, but he also struck out 161 times in 622 plate appearances. Those strikeouts are a result of a long swing, and it will most certainly have to be compacted if he is going to hit the kind of fastballs with which major league pitchers will definitely challenge him.

Attention Twins Fans: Park Byung-ho hit a solo home run tonight against Mexico to help Korea get the win pic.twitter.com/38tR3jclsk

— Dan (@MyKBO) November 14, 2015

But again, Kang’s success as a hitter this past season with Pittsburgh is seen as a positive thing for Park’s transition, assuming the Twins are able to sign him.

“He’s right in the prime of his career,” Ryan told Shipley. “He’s got of lot of baseball behind him in that Korean league, which is similar to the Japanese league. They have some decent players there that have had some success in the major leagues.”

Park is likely to find some of that in the American League, where he’d likely be a designated hitter. Those exit velocities do not lie, and there are plenty of current major leaguers who are All-Stars despite massive strikeout totals. 

Park has the talent to be the next player of that ilk, further solidifying the KBO as more than just a place to find pitchers.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Minnesota Twins are crashing the wild-card party and have been one of the biggest surprises of the 2015 season. After finishing last year with the second-worst record in the American League, the Cinderella Twins are now very much in the postseason picture and are just one game back for the second AL wild-card spot following a dramatic win Thursday night.

In their preseason team rankings, Sports Illustrated had the Twins at No. 28 in the league with a projected 2015 record of 67-95. With three games left to play, the Twins have managed to win 83 games this season and are 7-3 in their last 10 games.

What has been the key to their remarkable turnaround?

Young talent.

Similar to the Houston Astros, who coincidentally tied the Twins for the second-worst record in the AL last year (70- 92) and currently hold the second wild card, the Twins made an early decision that they were going to play their youngsters.

Seeking a spark following an 11-17 June, the Twins wasted little time in calling up top hitting prospect Miguel Sano from Double-A on July 1. The hard-swinging designated hitter/third baseman made an immediate impact. Sano, 22, hit .297 that month with an OBP of .424 to go along with four home runs in 22 games.

On Thursday, Sano was named one of three finalists for the Major League Baseball Players Association Most Outstanding Rookie Award in the AL. He has slugged 18 homers in 77 games this year. Projected over the course of a full season, those numbers become awe-inspiring.

On top of the power, Sano has shown a consistent ability to get on base. Although he has struck out 115 times, which is alarming, he has drawn 50 walks and has an OBP of .385.

Joe Mauer, who knows a thing or two about hitting himself, has been impressed with the Dominican slugger’s approach so far. In an interview with Derek Wetmore of 1500 ESPN, Mauer said it has been fun to watch the progress Sano has made.

“I think everybody talks about his power and how strong he is, but I think I’m mostly impressed with his eye at the plate,” Mauer said. “Laying off of tough pitches. He’s got a pretty good idea of what he wants to do and needs to do.”

If Sano can limit his strikeouts next year by cutting down on his swings and misses on hard breaking balls, he could grow to be one of the elite power hitters in the league.

Another rookie who has helped turn things around for the Twins is outfielder Eddie Rosario. With the big league club since May 6, Rosario has brought some much-needed energy to the Twins lineup.

Rosario projects to be a solid, all-around player for Minnesota for years to come. Rosario, who celebrated his 24th birthday on September 28, leads the majors in triples with 15.

On September 16, the Guayama, Puerto Rico, product became the first rookie since Hanley Ramirez in 2006 to collect at least 10 homers, 10 doubles, 10 triples and 10 stolen bases in a season.

He has a .271 average with 13 home runs and 18 doubles. Like Sano, and many young hitters out there, look for Rosario to work on cutting down his strikeout totals moving forward. If he can work the count and get on base a little bit more, he should be able to establish himself as a decent stolen base threat to go along with his power.

Also making a difference is shortstop Eduardo Escobar. Splitting time at short with Danny Santana, Escobar has impressed with his timely hitting and .989 fielding percentage.

The Twins got a huge lift from Escobar on Thursday night when he smacked a game-tying opposite-field double down the line during the top of the eighth in a must-win game against the Cleveland Indians. The hit helped keep the team’s postseason hopes alive.

And then there’s the Twins’ No. 1 prospect, Byron Buxton. Although he has struggled to the tune of a .216 BA, the outfielder has recently shown signs of breaking out. He is hitting .400 over the past two weeks, including his first two homers of his career.

He has also played in only 44 games so far and is still only 21 years old.

Just as Mike Trout struggled during his first taste of big league action (.220 BA in 2011), Buxton may just be going through the rounds as he adjusts to the AL and tougher pitching 

Who knows what Buxton could be capable of in a full season? 

At a point when young teams sometimes tend to fade or fatigue, the Twins have played strong down the stretch in September, compiling a 15-13 record.

That’s usually a sign of good things to come, and their core of young hitters, mixed with veterans, should help propel this team moving forward.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Almost from the moment Carlos Correa made his big league debut with the Houston Astros, he looked like the front-runner in the American League Rookie of the Year race. But the Minnesota Twins‘ Miguel Sano has muscled his way into the mix, and he could sprint ahead with a scalding September.

That word, “scalding,” certainly described Sano up until recently. The 22-year-old slugger tore through August, bashing seven doubles, nine home runs, scoring 18 times and collecting 26 RBI in 27 games, and he was named AL Rookie of the Month for his troubles. 

Lately, Sano has hit a snag, striking out 11 times in 15 at-bats between Sept. 4 and Sept. 7.

He was out of the starting lineup Tuesday, and he might also miss Wednesday’s action as he takes a “mental break,” per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press.

In addition to whatever’s going on between his ears, Sano is nursing a strained right hamstring, which helps explain the mini-slump. But it sounds like Twins skipper Paul Molitor plans to keep trotting out his young masher more often than not.

“We’ve had a couple different people look at the MRI,” Molitor said Sunday, per Berardino. “Generally people think we’re at a very minimal risk of doing something substantial here, as long as he plays intelligently.”

The Twins will need Sano’s bat if they hope to stay in the postseason hunt. Among players with at least 100 at-bats, Sano paces the club in slugging percentage (.574) and OPS (.961).

The Kansas City Royals have essentially put the AL Central out of reach, but entering play Wednesday, Minnesota, at 71-67, trailed the Texas Rangers by just 2.5 games for the second wild card.

Let’s say Sano shakes off, or successfully plays through, the hamstring issue. Imagine he catches fire again, rekindling his August output, and helps carry the Twins into October.

At that point, how do you deny him a Rookie of the Year nod?

Well, there is that Correa fellow. 

Sure, the Twins are improbable contenders, the definition of a Cinderella story. But the ‘Stros are squeezing on some glass slippers of their own.

In fact, if the Twins secure a wild-card slot and Houston wins the AL West (at 75-64, they lead the Rangers by one game heading into Wednesday), the Astros would arguably be the bigger overachiever based on preseason expectations. 

None of ESPN’s experts, for example, picked either team to make the playoffs. And if they were both equally discounted, an Astros division crown trumps a Twins wild card, at least by a little.

Of course, team performance is far from the only factor come awards time. Ultimately, Rookie of the Year is an individual honor.

So how do Sano and Correa stack up on the stat sheet? Let’s take a glance and throw in the numbers for the Cleveland Indians‘ Francisco Lindor, who also belongs in this discussion:

If you’re giving the award out today, it goes to Correa. He’s got more at-bats and a higher WAR than Sano, and he trumps Lindor in OPS.

And while Sano has logged the bulk of his time at designated hitter, Correa, like Lindor, plays shortstop, one of the most important defensive positions on the diamond.

“[Sano] should be definitely recognized,” MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds opined, “and I think he’s going to be somebody you have to reckon with. But I think Carlos Correa is going to win it, because of all the other things he does in a game.”

In fact, if we’re talking defense, Lindor gets an edge there. His eight defensive runs saved (DRS) rank fifth-best among big league shortstops, per FanGraphs, while Correa checks in at minus-one DRS.

The bottom line is that while Correa appears to be the leader in the clubhouse, this AL ROY scramble is far from settled. 

That leaves the door open for Sano. Can he shove his way through?

There are reasons to raise a skeptical eyebrow other than the hamstring issue.

There’s Sano’s gaudy strikeout total, which stands at 88 in 195 at-bats. And he’s sporting an almost-assuredly unsustainable .415 batting average on balls in play.

On the other hand, consider the fact that this is a kid who missed the entire 2014 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. 

Then think about what he’s already accomplished since his early-July MLB call-up after never playing an inning above Double-A.

Then watch this monstrous hack, which resulted in quite possibly the most impressive double you’ll ever witness:

Are you not convinced? Do you seriously doubt Sano can go on another tear, chewing through opposing pitchers like a ripe Honeycrisp apple (that’s the state fruit of Minnesota, in case you didn’t know)?

If you’re laying down your college tuition or second mortgage, the safe money is still on Correa to nab ROY. Again, he plays a premium defensive position, and he served a reminder of what he can do with the lumber on Monday, launching a three-run homer and tallying four RBI in a 10-9 loss to the Oakland A’s. And Lindor is also lurking.

Sano, however, has a shot. And, fittingly, the fortunes of the underdog Twins and their budding basher are inextricably linked as we enter the stretch run.

Will the Twins taste October? Will Sano’s trophy case get heavier? The next few weeks will tell the tale.

And no matter the outcome, it’ll be a fascinating story to follow.

All standings and statistics current as of Sept. 8 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Top prospect Byron Buxton is returning to the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins following a short stint in the minors after overcoming a thumb injury, MLB Roster Moves confirmed Wednesday.

Minnesota originally called up Buxton, whom MLB.com rated as the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, back in June. He received just 37 at-bats, picking up seven hits (.189 average), before suffering the thumb issue that forced him to the disabled list.

The Twins decided to option him back to the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings once he returned to full strength rather than bring him right back to the majors. He responded by embarking on a 12-game hitting streak, including six multi-hit games.

It left the front office little choice but to recall him after Aaron Hicks suffered a hamstring injury during a loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday.    

Aaron Gleeman of Hardball Talk explained the unbridled joy in Minnesota:

Buxton is undoubtedly an exciting player with five-tool potential. His first stay in the majors showed there’s still a learning curve as he adjusts to big league pitching, however. It’s not fair to expect him to single-handedly vault the Twins back atop the wild-card standings.

Getting him back in the lineup every day is a step in the right direction, though. He didn’t have much left to prove in Rochester, and as long as he’s able to stay healthy this time around, he should make clear progress before season’s end.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

By now, you probably already know that Major League Baseball is enjoying one of its finest rookie classes ever in 2015. In particular, the limelight has had little trouble finding the likes of Carlos Correa, Joc Pederson, Kris Bryant, Noah Syndergaard, Randal Grichuk and Kyle Schwarber. 

But enough about them. It’s high time the limelight was cast on someone else. His name is Miguel Sano, and he’s quietly all sorts of awesome.

This isn’t news to fans of the Minnesota Twins. They spent years watching Sano climb to the top of the prospect ranks and have obviously gotten a good look at the 22-year-old third-baseman-turned-DH in the 38 games he’s played in the majors since his call-up in early July. But it might be news to everyone else, as Sano had himself something of a coming-out party on Monday night.

Albeit in an 8-7 losing effort, Sano picked up three hits against the New York Yankees in his first career game at Yankee Stadium. One of those was a rocket of a two-run homer into the left-field bleachers that temporarily knotted the score at 3-3 in the third inning.

All told, a pretty good day. And now that it’s in the books, there’s no ignoring that Sano’s numbers are considerably better than just “pretty good.”

Across his first 157 major league plate appearances, Sano is slashing .292/.401/.554 with eight home runs. Among rookies with at least 150 plate appearances, he trails only Grichuk in slugging. He leads all said rookies, however, in on-base percentage and OPS (.955).

That’s an impressive performance even without context, but it stands out even more with context. Using the park- and league-adjusted hitting metric wRC+, Paul Swydan of FanGraphs dove into history and found that Sano is having the kind of rookie season that fewer than 30 other rookies have ever had.

Mind you, this shouldn’t be taken to mean that Sano is the best rookie 2015 has to offer. To that end, there are a number of more well-rounded guys you could pick.

But the best hitter? Yeah, that much can be argued. And the closer you look at Sano, the less surprising that becomes.

The No. 1 reason Sano’s early-career hot hitting isn’t surprising? That would be the fact that hitting has always been his thing. He racked up a .937 OPS in parts of five minor league seasons, at one point pushing his stock as high as the No. 6 spot in Baseball America‘s pre-2014 top 100.

The one tool that had the biggest hand in making this possible is Sano’s power. It produced a .564 slugging percentage and 105 home runs in the minors, and Christopher Crawford and Bret Sayre of Baseball Prospectus warned when Sano was being called up that his power was very much for real:

Sano is massive, listed at 6’4”, 260 pounds, but likely a few pounds heavier; and his ability to transfer that weight along with his incredibly strong wrists give him as much power as any right-handed hitting prospect in baseball. He’s long-limbed and lets the ball travel deep, so he can take the ball out to any part of the field. If you ever get a chance to see the 22-year-old take batting practice, do it. It’s a fun show.

In slugging .554 with eight jacks in 38 games—that’s about a 35-homer pace over a full season—it would certainly seem that Sano is living up to his billing as an elite power threat. But in reality, his results might actually undersell the degree to which he’s been crushing the ball.

Heading into Monday’s game, FanGraphs put Sano’s hard contact percentage (Hard%) at 46.1. That’s a huge leap over the league average of 28.6. So much so, in fact, that it put Sano in the special-est of company.

With a minimum of 150 plate appearances, here were MLB‘s Hard% leaders heading into Monday’s action:

1. Giancarlo Stanton: 49.7
2. Miguel Sano: 46.1

You know that bit from Crawford and Sayre about Sano having as much power as any right-handed prospect in baseball? Given that only Stanton has made hard contact on a more frequent basis, maybe the word “prospect” should have been replaced with the word “player” there.

There is a more unfortunate trait Sano has in common with Stanton, though. He strikes out a lot. Like, a lot as in a lot. Of his 157 plate appearances, 53 have been strikeouts. That’s a 33.8 strikeout percentage, which is enough to make even Mark Reynolds say, “Whoa, dude! Chill!”

On the bright side, just because a hitter strikes out a ton doesn’t mean he can’t be an advanced hitter. And though Sano will likely never be mistaken for Joey Votto, he’s advanced in just the kind of way you want a power-first hitter to be advanced.

“I think everybody talks about his power and how strong he is, but I think I’m mostly impressed with his eye at the plate,” said Twins veteran Joe Mauer to Derek Wetmore of 1500 ESPN. “Laying off of tough pitches. He’s got a pretty good idea of what he wants to do and needs to do.”

Naturally, this points us to one of the primary sources of Sano’s .401 on-base percentage. He’s walking in 15.9 percent of his plate appearances. If he had enough plate appearances to qualify, that’s a rate that would rank fifth in MLB.

At the heart of Sano’s walk rate is very real discipline. Entering Monday, his 42.3 swing percentage was well below the MLB average of 47.4. Likewise, his 25.1 chase percentage (O-Swing%) was well below the MLB average of 31.2. For further perspective, among the players who were chasing pitches outside the zone more regularly are Mark Teixeira, Andrew McCutchen, Manny Machado and Jason Kipnis.

To be sure, there are plenty of players who are expanding the zone less often than Sano, too. But if you want a list of players who strike a balance between plate discipline and hard contact like Sano…well, it’s a short list. Among all qualified hitters, the only other player with a hard-hit rate over 40 percent and a chase rate under 26 percent on Monday was a fellow named Paul Goldschmidt, who is arguably the game’s best hitter.

Given that Sano’s major league career is still very young, you’re excused and indeed encouraged to take all this with one, two or a hundred grains of salt. He has a ways to go yet before he proves that he can last as one of the game’s most dangerous hitters.

Early though it may be, however, there’s no ignoring that Sano has at least set himself on that path. If you weren’t already aware of that, consider yourself enlightened.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Phil Hughes has run into lower back inflammation problems. 

Continue for updates.

Hughes’ Back Forces Him Out

Thursday, August 13

MLB Roster Moves announced on Thursday that Hughes will be placed on the 15-day disabled list because of lower back inflammation.       

Hughes has been struggling through a rough 2015 in which he’s had difficulty keeping the ball out of the stands. In 23 starts this season, Hughes has allowed 28 home runs and 172 hits, the highest respectively among all American League pitchers. 

He had a particularly bad outing on August 9, his last start before being sent to the DL, as he was rocked for seven runs on nine hits in three innings against the Cleveland Indians. 

The Twins are in need of help in their rotation, as Hughes led all starters with 10 wins. However, his 4.49 ERA is among the worst in Minnesota. No starter who has appeared in 14 games or more has an ERA under 3.76. 

According to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), the Twins have moved Trevor May from the bullpen back to the starter’s group after they initially took him out of the rotation in early July. May is 8-7 with a 4.09 ERA and will start on Friday against the Indians.

Minnesota was not done there, though. It recalled Tyler Duffey, who gave up six runs in two innings against the Toronto Blue Jays in his lone major league start, from Triple-A to start on Saturday. It also activated 5-3 Tommy Milone from the disabled list to start on Sunday.

Making changes to the rotation on the fly is all the Twins could do. They have to figure out a way to cut down on their 4.45 runs allowed per game (sixth worst in the MLB) as they sit just 2.0 games behind the final American League wild-card spot. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton has landed on the disabled list with a thumb injury two weeks after he was called up from the minors. 

Continue for updates. 

Buxton Placed on 15-Day DL

Friday, June 26

According to MLB Roster Moves on Twitter, the Twins called up Danny Santana to take Buxton’s spot on the roster:

LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Buxton could miss four to six weeks.

Buxton, who was injured sliding into second base against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday, has struggled in his brief big league tenure. The 21-year-old has 15 strikeouts in 37 at-bats with a .189/.231/.270 line. 

Injuries are starting to pile up for Buxton. He played only 31 games last season due to a wrist injury and concussion. He’s still young enough to think these are just fluke incidents, but at some point, it will start to become a concern for the Twins. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The air horn prank, as a means of terrifying people, is one of the more reliable scare tactics in the anarchist playbook.

The target is alarmed, no one is punched in the neck (usually) and everyone goes home with a fun, dull ringing in their ears.

Of course, combining the air horn with any other number of surprising elements only adds to the pants-soiling factor, as Minnesota Twins bullpen coach Eddie Guardado found out after Monday night’s 13-2 evisceration of the Chicago White Sox.

Guardado stepped near his locker after the post-blowout revelry and was quickly blasted across the room by what I can only assume was a Coast Guard-certified air signaler.

Twins pitcher Glen Perkins captured video of the prank. Guardado threw up the Dez Bryant “X” and ran off. He might still be running.

MLB.com’s Michael Clair and Rhett Bollinger hypothesize pitcher Brian Duensing (originator of the locker room air horn prank) was behind the sneak attack.

Pray for Guardado, and pour some out for his collapsed eardrums.

Dan is on Twitter. He learned how to harness the power of the air horn drive-by in high school.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com