*Photo from the Star Tribune*
Although the Minnesota Twins are seemingly in a state of rebuild, they can still have a franchise face extended. The Twins and OF Byron Buxton have agreed to a 7 year, $100 million extension, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Twins have confirmed the deal.
In addition to a no trade clause, Buxton gets pretty unique financial terms. He gets a $1 million signing bonus, a $9 million salary for 2022, and a $15 million salary every year after that. He also can earn MVP incentives, which start at $8 million in year one, and ends at $3 million for the 6th and 7th seasons of the deal. He gets an additional $500,000 in bonuses for certain plate appearance numbers.
Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said of the extension that "Byron, Lindsey, his family, his representatives and everyone in the organization allowed us to get here. I think that's not just true in the contract structure and what we arrived at, but also in the player, in the human, in the man. He's been through a lot. He'd be the first to tell you that. He's had some incredible ups and some challenges along the way. And I think Byron Buxton represents everything we want this organization to be."
Last season, Buxton put on full display the exact power that he has when healthy. He hit for a .306 batting average with a 1.005 OPS, slugging .647 and blasting 19 home runs, driving in 32 runs and stealing 9 bases in 61 games played. His big issue was that he just can't stay healthy, only surpassing the 92 game mark once in his career.
Across his 7 big league seasons, Buxton has a batting average of .248 and a .761 OPS, hitting 70 home runs and driving in 204 runs, stealing 71 bases with his speed, playing in 493 regular season games. In 3 career playoff games, Buxton has one hit in 6 plate appearances, producing one RBI and stealing two bases.
One thing Buxton has also been known for, in addition to health issues, is his incredible defense. With his speed, he is a true center fielder for the Twins. He has a 2017 Gold Glove award to prove it, and has 60 DRS in his 7 year career, which includes 10 DRS last season. His defense while patrolling center field is an asset for the Twins.
Buxton said of signing his extension that "My family took a big part of this. They're comfortable here. The comfort here is a big key for what we want to do, and the stability, just knowing that we don't have to go anywhere, that we can put our boys through school and not really have to worry about it too much, is the biggest key."
Comments
Post a Comment