Byron Buxton Injury Update for MN Twins is Good News

Saturday night the Minnesota Twins fell to the Washington Nationals by a score of 9-3. Sunday afternoon All-Star centerfielder Byron Buxton was out of the lineup after being lifted with left side soreness a day prior.

Reports suggested there was no new information on the outfielder prior to Sunday’s 7-2 loss. He was headed for an MRI and would await the results.

Fortunately for the Twins, and more importantly Buxton himself, the outcome is a best-case scenario.

MRI reveals irritation for Minnesota Twins Byron Buxton

Byron Buxton has been among baseball’s best defenders for the entirety of his career. The latest example was a jumping catch to rob Washington Nationals infielder Luis Garcia Jr. of extra bases.

Buck makes these catches look way too easy pic.twitter.com/JJOH8KmWJ0

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 26, 2025

Unfortunately the result of his catch left Buxton exiting the contest on Saturday, and still out Sunday. What was reported as just left side soreness still required an MRI for the talented outfielder. Noting just irritation, Buxton’s official timetable is day-to-day.

Byron Buxton’s MRI revealed rib cartilage irritation, and he’s considered day-to-day. Rocco Baldelli called it a good news.

— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr) July 27, 2025

Buxton has played in 85 games this season for Minnesota. He has reached at least that threshold in the past four seasons, and is coming off his first 100-game (102) since 2017 (140). There is plenty of time for him to surpass that mark even if he needs a couple of days off.

The season appears to be lost for the Minnesota Twins despite Buxton’s standout performance. He is batting .282/.343/.561 with 23 home runs. While it won’t impact the team at this point, he has plenty to play for personally.

The MN Twins are likely to sell at the trade deadline this week, and Buxton will have younger teammates taking over roster spots. Rocco Baldelli would love to have Buxton healthy to finish out the season, especially if teammate Harrison Bader is going to be moved.

Plenty for Buxton to play for down the stretch

Having accumulated 3.9 fWAR to date, and having been at 4.2 fWAR as recently as last week, Buxton could set a new career-high. He generated 4.5 fWAR in 2017 and needed 140 games to do so. It’s beyond reasonable that he’ll surpass that mark this season in substantially less games.

Buxton has produced four outs above average in centerfield and is 6th in the American League by fWAR. He’s not going to win an MVP with the seasons Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh are having. That doesn’t mean he won’t want to generate votes.

Related: Dodgers Coming for Twins Outfielder

With his contract extension Buxton bet on himself. He gets a $6 million bonus for a third place finish in the MVP race. There is also a $5 million bonus for fourth, $4 million for fifth, and $3 million for sixth through tenth. Maybe that’s nominal for a $100 million man, but it would at least be nice recognition.

Buxton finished 18th in the MVP race during 2017, and 16th in 2020.