The year of the rookie is in full swing.
The invasion of baseball’s future stars on today’s active MLB rosters officially came to a peak this past weekend when the Minnesota Twins called up Byron Buxton, a five-tool center fielder who is either the first or second-best prospect depending on who you get your evaluations from. The 21-year-old’s highly-anticipated big league debut came a bit earlier than expected, as Minnesota promoted the former second overall pick right up from Double-A Chattanooga.
He’s just the latest promising twenty-something who’s made the jump, however.
According to Baseball America’s rankings, four of the game’s top-five prospects—Kris Bryant, Buxton, Addison Russell and Carlos Correa—have made their MLB debuts in 2015, with the lone exception being the Dodgers’ Corey Seager, who is also expected to get a call-up soon. Top-20 prospects Joey Gallo, Joc Pederson, Francisco Lindor, Noah Syndergaard, Jorge Soler, Carlos Rodon and Blake Swihart are also now on major league rosters.
With an influx of young talent getting their feet wet early this year, the Twins’ decision to bring up Buxton now looks less risky than it would usually—although that’s not to say it couldn’t be a mistake. Even Buxton’s Double-A coach, former major leaguer Doug Mientkiewicz, isn’t sure that the timing was ideal.
“I don’t think he’s completely ready,” Mientkiewicz told Fox Sports on Monday. “What I tell my players is we want to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’. We want to make sure when you get to the big leagues you stay. None of this shuffling back and forth.”
Mientkiewicz does believe, however, that parts of Buxton’s game are more than ready for the bright lights.
“Definitely, without a question, he was ready to play defense two years ago. Offensively, it’s going to come and go. He’s young. It’s like anybody else. It’s going to take time.”
He continued:
“One thing about the kid—he can handle it mentally. I hate to say this, but when there is no better alternative, why not? He’s definitely better than anyone they have right now. They’re looking for a spark. When he gets going, he can provide an excitement they haven’t seen in a while.”
As Mientkiewicz noted, Buxton’s early arrival to the big leagues is partly a result of the Twins’ injury issues and overall weak play at his position.
This season, Minnesota’s center fielders—Aaron Hicks, Shane Robinson and Jordan Schafer—have been underwhelming at the plate, combining for an on-base percentage under .300, and nothing extraordinary in the field. To make matters worse, both Hicks and Schafer were recently placed on the 15-day DL, forcing the organization’s hand regarding Buxton with a division crown still in the cards.
That said, Buxton is one of the safer prospects for an early call-up due to his unique skill set. Although he will need some time to adjust to the big league game at the plate, he shouldn’t have any issues patrolling center field or running the bases.
This season, Buxton stole 20 bases in 22 attempts—good for the highest wSB in all of Double-A. For his minor league career, the Georgia native stole 102 bags in 131 attempts, which comes out to a 78 percent success rate.
Defensively, Buxton is 8-for-8 in putout attempts in his first two major league games and should be more than serviceable in the coming months considering he was 13.9 runs better than the average Double-A center fielder this season in Chattanooga.
There’s reason to believe he could be a better option than the Twins’ other center fielders with the bat, too. Despite being one of the youngest players in his league, Buxton hit .283 with a .351 OBP and .489 SLG in 57 Double-A games this year. He was also pretty well-rounded, picking up 6 homers, 37 RBIs and 12 triples—the latter of which he has already proved he can do in the big leagues, too.
While Buxton may not have one major league-ready trait that will significantly boost the Twins’ chances at landing in the playoffs, he probably won’t embarrass them with worse play than what they’ve endured from their center fielders in 2015, either.
With Buxton seemingly here to stay, Minny’s future has arrived early. Just what kind of future is what we’re about to find out.