It unfortunately seemed inevitable, but the Minnesota Twins confirmed everyone's worst fears on Thursday. Byron Buxton has been out since midway through Monday's win over the Royals, and he's going to remain sidelined for the time being.
Buxton was placed on the 10-day IL with hip discomfort, which is anything but comforting for Twins fans. Making matters more anxiety-inducing is the fact that Buxton is heading to the IL despite his MRI showing no structrual damage and no obvious injury.
That's a strange good news-bad news place for Twins fans to be in, but it seems to be where we've always been with Buxton's health. The good news is that he hasn't suffered some sort of siginficant injury, but the bad news is this one's vague enough to potentially keep him out much longer than ten days.
We'll see how his recovery goes and how soon he's actually back, but in the meantime the Twins used the opportunity to give someone else another shot at earning his keep.
Twins call up Edouard Julien to replace Byron Buxton on 26-man roster
With Buxton on the IL, Minnesota is using his roster spot to recall Edouard Julien from Triple-A. It's been a rough season for Julien, who started the year as one of the bright shining hopes in the Twins' lineup but quickly became one of the team's worst hitters.
He's spent some time in St. Paul trying to work on his swing -- like actually physically swinging the bat -- and now we get to see if it pays off.
Even though he has no structural damage, Byron Buxton will be placed on the 10-day IL. Edouard Julien is en route. #MNTwins
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) August 15, 2024
Julien was demoted back in early June after hitting just .204/.311/.665 and a whopping 36.5 percent strikeout rate. It's the latter stat that alarmed everyone in Minnesota, as Julien was not onlyt striking out at a high clip but doing so looking almost every single time.
His patience at the plate was a blessing at first, and one of the reasons he ascended through the farm system as one of Minnesota's best hitting prospects. It was his defense that needed work, but those two things flipped this year and Julien surprisingly became an offensive liablity.
Since spending time with the Saints, things have slowly started to turn around.
He's gotten his OPS back up and is slashing .242/.395/.409 while coming back to the Twins after a sustained hitting streak. There's still some worry that he'll regress back into what he was doing earlier this season, but we've also seen enough out of him in the past to beleive he can turn things around.
Last season Julien hit .263/.381/.459 while drawing 64 walks and earning credibility as a Rookie of the Year snub. Those walks truly have haunted, though, as he's truly testing whether or not a hitter can be too disciplined at the plate.
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