With just a month left in the regular season, the Minnesota Twins need as they cling to their postseason lives. The Twins are just 3.5 games out of first place in the AL Central but only that same amount of games ahead of the Boston Red Sox for the finaly Wild Card spots.
It's somewhat fitting, but the Twins are equal distance away from earning a first round bye as they are missing the playoffs entirely.
That much-needed help seems to be coming at just the right time. Byron Buxton has been out since mid-August with a mysterious hip injury which has sidelined him at a critical time in the season. Buxton's stint on the IL coincided with time missed by Carlos Correa and came on the heels of the team losing Joe Ryan and Brock Stewart for the remainder of the season.
It was awful timing, but things are finally starting to trend in the right direction.
Byron Buxton is getting closer to returning to Twins lineup at the exact right time
Buxton hasn't played since August 12th, but he began a rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul on Monday. There were rumblings that he could be close to working his way back, but Rocco Baldelli didn't have an exact timeline as recently as Saturday.
No matter how quickly it came together, the Twins are that much closer to getting one of their best players back at the exact right time.
Buxton returning is in line with some other things that are falling into place for the Twins. Pablo Lopez is returning to his ace form, and the Kansas City Royals have started to come back to earth. Perhaps above all else the Guardians aren't pulling away with the division the way some might have thought at this point, which sets up what could be an intense September race to the finish.
Getting Correa back would go a long way in helping the Twins get back to where they should be, and Buxton's return is a first crucial step. We can't celebrate until he's actually back in the lineup but it sounds like we're closer to that than we've ever been in a month.
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