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<\/p>\nDETROIT \u2014 Byron Buxton never needed to invoke his no-trade clause, but his representatives routinely waived off interested clubs in July, including through Thursday\u2019s shocking trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Minnesota\u2019s two-time All-Star center fielder confirmed Monday that teams engaged with his agent to gauge Buxton\u2019s interest in waiving his no-trade clause before speaking with the Twins front office. Multiple sources confirmed at least six teams contacted Buxton\u2019s agent, B.B. Abbott, about the possibility, including\u00a0early in July before it was clear whether the Twins would be buyers or sellers.<\/p>\n
One source said the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets showed the most interest in Buxton.<\/p>\n
Buxton also confirmed he used last month\u2019s All-Star game press conference to put word out he\u2019s staying with the Twins, who signed him to an incentive-laden seven-year contract worth $100 million in December 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to be wanted,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong. But the only place I want is Minnesota. All of my choices are easy. I ain\u2019t got but one place on my mind. That\u2019s how it\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his All-Star game media session on July 14, Buxton was asked several times about the possibility of being traded if the Twins decided to become sellers. He quickly responded he would remain a Twin for life because of his no-trade clause.<\/p>\n
Even so, the interest was constant enough for club president Derek Falvey to ensure Buxton knew the Twins didn\u2019t initiate any of the trade talks when the two spoke over the weekend in Cleveland, according to sources.<\/p>\n
Falvey also used the meeting to conduct a wellness check on Buxton after the veteran endured a \u201cheartbreaking\u201d day seeing eight teammates traded on Thursday, including close friend Carlos Correa.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Byron Buxton had no desire to play elsewhere: \u2018Where I come from, your word means everything.\u2019 (Harry How \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
One reason the Twins want Buxton around is that they believe he\u2019s the club\u2019s \u201cpulse\u201d with his energy and work ethic. Though disappointed to see 10 players in all offloaded, Buxton is excited to see a number of young players receive new opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody expected all the moves,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cBut for me, I knew I ain\u2019t going nowhere. Even though it\u2019s a lot of chaos, it\u2019s still calm within to know it is what it is. It\u2019s part of the process. Obviously, you don\u2019t want that to be the case, but we\u2019ve got a young group of guys where these last two months will be fun. We\u2019ve just got to come out and play hard and play good baseball and see where it takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even as other teammates waived their no-trade clauses, requested to be traded or hoped they\u2019d be dealt, Buxton never wavered. He knew he\u2019d found a home away from home when he first arrived in the majors and again when he signed his extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I come from, your word means everything,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cMy track record of how I\u2019m still here and how I got here is different. You\u2019ve gotta have a lot of people behind you. Not just the family, but everybody. Minnesota, they did that. That\u2019s home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind the Louis Varland deal<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re upset about the Louis Varland trade, you\u2019re not alone. Varland is the player most often mentioned by his former teammates when asked who they were most surprised to see go at Thursday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
While the impending free agents were destined to be traded, Correa was a salary dump for a team up for sale with an uncertain financial future, and Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax were due big raises in arbitration and netted good returns.<\/p>\n
The trades of Varland and Brock Stewart raised a few eyebrows in the clubhouse. Both were on affordable contracts. <\/strong>Though several players acknowledged understanding why the Twins traded Stewart, who features a sordid injury history. Varland\u2019s never been hurt and is flourishing in his first full season in the bullpen. Many believe Varland could take over a high-leverage role soon in a bullpen full of vacancies.<\/p>\n As difficult as the trade was to complete, Falvey and the Twins are ecstatic with the return they received from Toronto. The Twins received outfielder Alan Roden, whom they believe could be a regular, and are more excited about Triple-A left-handed pitcher Kendry Rojas.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a left-handed starting pitcher in Triple A that\u2019s throwing 93 to 98, doesn\u2019t walk guys and gets a ton of swing-and-miss,\u201d Falvey said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many of those guys walking around that have that kind of ability. \u2026 If it was an easy (decision), no one would be discussing it. We\u2019ll have to judge that some years from now. We made the decision that upside starting pitching with that kind of talent and a potential everyday position player, or a guy that could contribute here soon, for a guy who we really like, who\u2019s a good reliever, we felt like, was the right kind of trade for us to make.\u201d<\/p>\n Version 1.0 of the 2025 Twins officially died on July 26.<\/p>\n Though a series loss the previous weekend in Colorado pushed the Twins\u2019 front office to the edge of becoming sellers, an ugly 9-3 defeat to the Washington Nationals pushed them over it. While Twins executives leaned toward offloading players, they held out hope of a turnaround as long as they could before the July 31 trade deadline.<\/p>\n Losing a series to two of baseball\u2019s worst teams made the decision easy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat kind of solidified a little more of where we thought we were headed,\u201d Falvey said.<\/p>\n Only two weeks earlier, the Twins\u2019 preparation was geared toward buying at the deadline. The group\u2019s belief in the club was bolstered by a 6-3 homestand that included series victories over the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs. Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll said the front office was ready for the possibility of buying and selling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re probably going to need to prepare a little bit of both for a little while, and I know that takes a ton of bandwidth for the staff, but let\u2019s just be prepared as best as possible, depending on how we do,\u201d Falvey said of his message.<\/p>\n No rushing the new guys<\/p>\n Though Mick Abel, James Outman and Taj Bradley all played in the majors this season, the Twins opted for the trio to start at Triple-A St. Paul. Pitchers Abel and Bradley both were already at Triple A, but Outman \u2014 after spending most of the season at Triple A \u2014 played in the majors for 3 1\/2 weeks leading up to the deadline.<\/p>\n The Twins wanted their new trio to acclimate to a new organization before bringing them to the majors.<\/p>\n \u201cThose guys we hope are really long-term significant impact players for us,\u201d Falvey said. \u201c The last thing you want to do is have guys come to the big leagues in a new environment, new staff, new everything and \u2018By the way, I\u2019m working on something.\u2019 If you can get some of that work done in Triple A to invest in the long-term future for that guy\u2019s career, it\u2019s usually a little bit better. That was our goal. Get them there to start working on the things we think they need to work on and then find a way to get them up here to see them at this level sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n Twins happy with their homework<\/p>\n The Twins felt their pre-deadline selling preparation allowed them to act fast and make quick decisions, even as the deadline neared. When it came to assessing the markets for their players with more trade value, the Twins tried to work ahead with teams to have an idea where each would go.<\/p>\n \u201cOur group was unbelievably prepared, with meetings starting last Thursday to level set on our eye levels for different players that teams were expressing interest in and to work through all of the top prospects in each of the relevant systems,\u201d Zoll said.<\/p>\n The Twins thought their prep work paid big dividends in the final hour when the club traded Willi Castro, as well as Jax and Varland. Overall, the Twins engaged with eight different teams.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re finally in there, you know what your asks are,\u201d Falvey said. \u201cYou know what would motivate you to go, and you know what isn\u2019t going to be motivating. If you hear something and you\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s just not going to get to the level,\u2019 maybe you provide a little bit of feedback back around what the deal would need to look like. And if they say, \u2018We\u2019re not doing that,\u2019 then you\u2019re good. You put it to bed. You move on to the next team.\u201d<\/p>\n (Photo: Matt Krohn \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Byron Buxton never needed to invoke his no-trade clause, but his representatives routinely waived off interested…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1287,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-120907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-minnesota-twins","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114976268293349884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}