Reusse: When or if Buxton plays, his place is in center field

Byron Buxton was ineffective at the plate as the Twins' most frequent designated hitter in 2023, causing demands in all public outlets from team followers that he return to center field.

Through this ongoing brouhaha, manager Rocco Baldelli and others were forced to respond that the chronic injury to his right knee was not going to permit that, so shut up about center field.

OK, Rocco didn't offer the "shut up" part, but for four months, as strikeouts mounted and Buxton battled to get his average above .200, he did not play in the field.

Buxton played his last of 85 games for the Twins on Aug. 1. The official injury was a hamstring pull. He went to St. Paul on Aug. 30 and played a half-game in center field, without his mobility being tested.

He didn't play in September and made one pinch-hitting appearance in the playoffs.

Obviously, there was a conclusion reached between baseball boss Derek Falvey and Buxton this offseason that the only way for him to be an asset was to give it a try again in center field.

There was a new knee procedure in the offseason that made this possible — something about flaps of skin affecting the patella being removed, which sounded too unelaborate to be true.

Buxton returned to center in spring training and has given it a big effort. He started 20 of the Twins' first 30 games and played in 24 in center field.

He made a memorable diving catch. He made a few stupendous running catches in the gaps. Maybe not the pure platinum of Buxton's past, but far superior to Baldelli's other options.

Willi Castro demonstrated that in a victory in Chicago on Tuesday, when he helped fuel a White Sox rally by taking a terrible route on a ball hit toward left-center. Buxton would have put it in his pocket, as previous generations of baseball followers were wont to say.

One afternoon later, Buxton was back in center, covering ground, then running repeatedly from first base to second on foul balls, and then walked off the field.

The barking knee was back. The Twins placed him on the 10-day injured list Friday. The official reason given was inflammation in the right knee.

You can start the Buxton bashing now, but I look at this as a stout attempt to give the Twins some return on that seven-year, $100 million contract that runs through 2028 — to get back in center against the odds, and run down everything, and take his chances the knee would stay playable.

The joint lasted five weeks.

And Buxton was a contributor both ways to the 10-game winning streak that put the Twins' season back on the rails, even if it was against the White Sox (woof) and the Angels (woof, woof).

Baldelli was asked for his assessment before Friday's game with Boston and Tanner Houck, an early candidate to be the American League's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game.

"Well, [Buxton] gave us everything he has, like he always does," Baldelli said. "I think he's been in a good spot physically. I don't think he's been close to 100 percent, but that's really not the question at this point.

"I think he's pushed through on certain days … to work and grind his way through games ... He's helped us get this season rolling and start playing some really good baseball."

Despite the months and seasons on the injured list, Baldelli said Buxton's first instinct when he comes in from the field limping, when he's in the clubhouse afterwards, is to say, "I'm good."

That's why Ryan Jeffers and others were expressing optimism in Chicago on Wednesday that Buxton might be ready by Friday.

Not with this history. Shut him down for a couple weeks and hope Buxton then will be ready for another month in center field.

What's certain is there's no sense in going back to the idea that he can always help as the designated hitter.

"He's been really good in center field and I feel like he's been kind of on the edge offensively of really finding what he's looking for," Baldelli said.

"When he can't say, 'I'm good,' it hurts him and we reached that point in the last game. He can't say 'I'm good' anymore. He was obviously not good at the moment."