Minnesota Twins: 5 players that must step up after Byron Buxton’s injury
The Minnesota Twins’ center fielder is done for the season, but who can step up to try and fill the void as the Twins march toward the postseason?
The Minnesota Twins were bracing for bad news on Byron Buxton‘s injured shoulder and on Tuesday, their biggest fears came to reality. After seeing a specialist in California, it was revealed that the left shoulder subluxation that was originally diagnosed on Aug. 1 was actually a torn labrum, meaning that Buxton will undergo season-ending surgery on his shoulder and require a recovery time of five to six months.
The injury comes at an awful time for the Twins who are reeling at just about every position ahead of their three-game series with the Washington Nationals. While many have been focused on the starting rotation, which suffered its own blow with a 60-game suspension for Michael Pineda, the outfield is starting to become paper-thin with almost every member banged up.
While the Twins got good news on Max Kepler‘s injured shoulder on Tuesday, they will still have to figure out a way to survive without Buxton, who helped lead Minnesota to a 57-25 record while he was in the lineup. At this point, the Twins will need all they can from their lineup as they try to hold on in the American League Central, but who can give the most as Minnesota heads down the stretch?
Eddie Rosario
Eddie Rosario has been a fan-favorite among Twins Territory and his overall performance in 2019 has done nothing to diminish his popularity. Rosario has hit .275 on the season and has crushed a career-high 28 home runs and 94 RBI. Numbers like that usually don’t require someone to step up, but in Rosario’s case, the Twins need a little more discipline from their left fielder.
On the season, Rosario’s plate discipline has been questionable with just 18 walks in 494 plate appearances. Over the same span, Rosario has logged a chase rate of 47 percent according to FanGraphs which means he’s allowed the pitcher to dictate his at-bats rather than waiting for a pitch that he can crush into the upper deck.
Although they are different players offensively, Buxton was able to display some patience with a walk rate nearly double the one Rosario has posted. With Buxton posting an on-base percentage of .314, he was at least able to get on base so he could do some damage outside of the big blast.
When you compare the two, both players are different in terms of their approach at the plate and their role on the team. However, if Rosario can be more selective at the plate, not only will he be able to keep the line moving, he might be able to get more pitches that he can drive out of the park.
Ian Miller
While Buxton’s impact offensively will be missed, a bigger void will be his speed in the lineup. Buxton’s speed was a great asset in the outfield (and with his tendency to run into walls, it could be a detriment), but perhaps it was a bigger asset when he was in the lineup on an every day basis.
When Buxton initially went down with his injury, he was among the leaders in the American League with 30 doubles even though most of them didn’t run a gap, but Buxton used his speed to make it happen. On the basepaths, Buxton was also a terror, swiping 16 of the Twins’ MLB-low 26 stolen bases.
Ian Miller isn’t going to turn anybody’s head with an at-bat (and his strikeout from Sunday may be the only at-bat he gets during his stint in Minnesota), but he could make up for the loss of Buxton’s speed in the outfield and specifically on the basepaths.
Miller has yet to attempt a stolen base at the major league level, but he was a stolen base king during his seven seasons in the minor leagues. Between the Twins and Mariners organizations, Miller stole 243 bases on 294 attempts, which turns out to be a success rate of 82.6%.
Miller isn’t going to make up for the loss of Buxton in the lineup, but as a late-inning pinch-runner or defensive replacement, he could do enough to make an impact.
Luis Arraez
It may be odd to see Luis Arraez‘s name here for a couple of reasons. First, he’s been one of the biggest impact players on the team despite not even being on the Opening Day roster hitting .342 with three home runs and 42 RBI. Second, he’s not even an outfielder, but the Twins have been forced to put him in left field thanks to the slew of injuries in the outfield.
As the Twins roster will shrink back down to 25 players if they make the postseason, the band-aids that they’ve used in LaMonte Wade Jr. and Ryan LaMarre will likely be left off, meaning the Twins could need to have Arraez continue to learn the position on the fly.
So far, the experiment of Arraez in left field has had decent, but not spectacular results. FanGraphs has charged 18 balls that have been playable and Arraez has made 15 of those plays, giving him a revised zone rating of .833. His UZR, which calculates runs allowed or saves compared to the average fielder, is a little lower as his -0.8 rating would extrapolate to a -8.8 rating over 150 games.
In a perfect world, the Twins would love to throw out a trio of Rosario, Max Kepler and Jake Cave in the outfield. With both Kepler and Cave dealing with injuries, however, it’s a real possibility that Arraez could be the one that has to make the plays in front of him to have a chance.
Marwin Gonzalez
Much like Arraez, Marwin Gonzalez is another player that is more at home in the infield but may be forced into outfield duty pending the severity of the injuries in the outfield. Gonzalez has been a victim of the injury bug himself as he is currently out of the lineup with an abdominal injury, but having him at full health could have him making his way out to right field.
While Gonzalez has played well wherever the Twins have put him on the diamond, right field has been his trouble spot. In 42 games in right field, Gonzalez has struggled, posting a -2.9 UZR which would extrapolate to a -9.8 UZR in 150 games according to FanGraphs.
This isn’t a new phenomenon for Gonzalez as he’s struggled in right field over his entire career. A -7.1 UZR per 150 innings shows that right field may not be his best position, but the Twins might not have a choice with Rosario sticking to left and Kepler shoehorned into center field thanks to Buxton’s injury.
As always, the biggest draw for Gonzalez will be his bat (which helped him hit .305 during the month of August). The Twins will always look for a way to get his bat in the lineup and if manager Rocco Baldelli is forced to trot him out to right field, he needs to make plays in order to help out Minnesota’s pitching staff.
Jake Cave
If there is one player that has already stepped up in the wake of Buxton’s injury, it has been Jake Cave. Before being called up on Aug. 3, Cave’s season was one that made people wonder if he should stay at Triple-A Rochester for the rest of the season. Hitting just .193 on the season with two home runs and nine RBI in 35 games, Cave was compounding those struggles by making mental mistakes in the outfield.
In his latest stint with the Twins, Cave has turned his season around and has become an integral part of the Minnesota lineup. Since being recalled for Buxton, Cave has hit .313/.367/.590 (.957 OPS) while smacking five home runs and driving in 13 RBI. Although he has cooled off recently and is currently recovering from a groin injury, Cave has done what the Twins have asked him to do.
The challenge for Cave is to keep this hot stretch going. While Buxton wasn’t putting up out of this world numbers, the 26-year old needs to keep playing well if the Twins want to mask the sting of losing Buxton for the season. His career numbers suggest that he can at least play at a reasonable level as he hit .265 with 13 HR and 45 RBI during his rookie season in 2017.
Next. Byron Buxton done for the season with torn labrum. dark
The reality is that no player on the Twins roster can match the dynamic style of play that Buxton provided over the first half of the season. However, if they can get a solid effort from most of the players on the roster, they still have enough to make a push into the postseason.