Rumor: Byron Buxton Interested in Waiving No-Trade Clause with Twins

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Byron Buxton - Minnesota Twins
Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Minnesota Twins are in Boston on Sunday, looking to sweep the Red Sox. If they can get it done, Derek Shelton & Co. would move to 26-27 on the season, yet again pulling within whispering distance of the ever-elusive .500 record.

How they continue to win games is beyond logical sports sense. But even without Pablo Lopez, Ryan Jeffers, Mick Abel and a bevy of other contributors they’ve lost to the injured list, the Twins continue to keep their hopes afloat in the American League Central standings.

Can they continue pushing the Guardians long enough that the Pohlads are forced into some awkward decisions at the August 3 trade deadline? Only time will tell, of course.

But you’ll be hard-pressed to find an insider across baseball who would bet on that. Instead, most expect Minnesota to be one of the more active deadline sellers, just like last year.

Ryan Jeffers, for example, is a pending free agent. If the Twins don’t move him before the deadline, they will surely lose him for nothing in free agency this offseason.

Meanwhile, I think most would be surprised if Joe Ryan is still around after the deadline. Same thing can be said for Trevor Larnach and Royce Lewis. In fact, we can even expect plenty of trade chatter surrounding Byron Buxton.

Byron Buxton open to trade out of Minnesota?

And now, there’s at least person who knows people outside Minnesota that believes Buxton will waive his no trade clause this season to leave the Twins. If you have been following along at all, it won’t be difficult to guess the team he’d be willing to leave the Land of 10,000 Lakes for… his hometown Atlanta Braves.

According to Atlanta radio host Chris Dimino (680 The Fan) on X today, he feels “very strongly” that Byron Buxton would “say yes to coming here”, if the Braves made Minnesota an offer worth moving the 32-year-old Gold Glover.

Dimino’s biggest hesitation, surrounding a Buck trade to Atlanta, is whether or not the Atlanta Braves would be interested in paying the haul it would take to pry him out of the Twins organization

Up until recently, Buck had made it very clear that he’s not interested in leaving Minnesota. And that matters, since he holds a full no-trade clause in his contract.

Twins superstar becoming more open to a trade

That stubbornness seemed to crack a bit this offseason, however, when Byron Buxton expressed his frustrations over how the MN Twins handled trade rumors in the months prior, before slightly opening the door to the idea of leaving.

Entering Sunday, Buxton is was batting .262 with a .896 OPS and 1.8 bWAR. He’s already hit 16 home runs and 26 extra base hits, plus 4 steals. In the outfield, Buck currently leads Major League Baseball in Range Factor, at 2.83, so his defense isn’t letting up either.

The hesitation over whether or not Atlanta would be interested in bringing Buxton home could be related to their current starting center fielder, Michael Harris II, who at 25 years old, is in the midst of a career season, batting .294 with a .827 OPS.

It’s worth noting that Harris posted a .677 OPS in 160 games last season and has a career .764 OPS, so the Braves’ interest could be dependent on whether or not Harris can stay hot through the deadline because it’d be tough to replace him with Buxton, when he’s younger and playing well.

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