The Minnesota Twins are the reigning AL Central champions.
They are a solid team, and even though they lost ace Sonny Gray in free agency, they have the players to replace him without losing too much quality.
Much of their future in 2024 and beyond will be dictated by how good, and how healthy, a key player is.
We are talking about Byron Buxton.
When he is 100 percent or close to it, Buxton usually performs like a star.
That has been the case except for last year, when he had a .207 batting average and a .731 OPS in 85 games.
However, he is also an extreme injury risk: he hasn’t surpassed 100 games played since 2017.
He even missed a few days this spring with a back issue.
He then returned to ease everybody’s concerns, and has now completed a pretty solid spring training.
“Byron Buxton finishes spring training hitting .314/.368/.600,” Twins insider Aaron Gleeman noted on Twitter.
Byron Buxton finishes spring training hitting .314/.368/.600.
Yes, Buxton was hot all spring and finished with an average over .300 and a slugging percentage of .600.
Those are excellent numbers, but spring performance doesn’t matter as much as the fact he is entering the season with a clean bill of health.
The Twins are much more dangerous when they have their star in one piece, happy, and performing.
It increases the squad’s ceiling.
If the 2023 Twins had 2022 Buxton (he hit 28 homers and put together a .833 OPS), perhaps they could have advanced further in the postseason.
It’s impossible to prove, though, but now, Minnesota has to look at the future, which is 2024.
With Buxton swinging a hot stick, it looks bright for them.