Minnesota Twins Byron Buxton Takes Top Defensive Honors

Within 24 hours, Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton was honored twice as the elite defender of the season in MLB

The Minnesota Twins saw a huge improvement in their team defense in 2017. One of the major reasons was the incredible play by center fielder Byron Buxton. On Friday, he was honored with two major awards.

Wilson defensive awards

The Wilson Defensive Awards are given yearly to the top players at each position in all of baseball. Unlike the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, which honor a player from each position in each the American and National League, the Wilson awards are only given to one player in the entire league at each position, which immediately makes them more exclusive. Buxton was honored as the top center fielder in the game by Wilson on their awards team for the season.

However, that’s not all. Wilson also awards an overall Defensive Player of the Year award along with a Defensive Team of the Year. While many could argue that the Minnesota Twins would have had a good argument for the team award, that award went to the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the individual player of the year award did go to Buxton, honoring him as the top defensive player in all of baseball, regardless of position.

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Rawlings Platinum Glove

Rawlings has been known for their Gold Glove awards for many years now, but in 2011, Rawlings added what they called the Platinum Glove Award, given yearly to one player from each league, recognized as the best defender in that league.

This season, Nolan Arenado won the National League’s version, but Byron Buxton was selected for the honor in the American League. That means that Buxton beat out likely the best competition in baseball against him for such an award, Andrelton Simmons, simply to win the American League version of the Platinum Glove.

Buxton is still eligible for awards in the annual esurance awards voting by the fans that will be announced on Friday, November 17th, so go vote!

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Buxton was more than happy with the honors, tweeting this: