The Minnesota Twins could be witnessing a career year from their franchise center fielder.
For the second time this season, Byron Buxton earned recognition from Major League Baseball and took home the American League's Player of the Week Award for June 8-June 14. Buxton previously received the honor for his performance from April 27-May 3, and has now tied Twins legends Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett and Joe Mauer for the most PoTW Awards in franchise history with four.
In the National League, Milwaukee Brewers teammates Jackson Chourio and Jacob Misiorowski shared the honor.
Buxton, who has struggled to stay healthy in the past, returned to the Twins lineup on June 9 against the Detroit Tigers after missing the latter half of Minnesota's series against the Kansas City Royals. On June 5, the 32-year-old had one at-bat before leaving in the third inning with a right shoulder contusion. He sustained the injury by crashing into the center field wall to make a catch, and missed the next two games.
But when Buxton returned to the field, it was like he never left. He had clubbed 18 home runs in his first 55 games of the year, and that trend continued over the past week.
The 12-year veteran terrorized the Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals to the tune of 11 hits in 24 at-bats (.458). Seven of those hits went for extra bases with three doubles and four homer runs. In Minnesota's series opener against St. Louis on June 12, Buxton went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a homer and three runs scored. The Twins took two-of-three against the Cardinals thanks to his efforts.
As alluded to earlier, Buxton's career has been ravaged by injuries; over his first nine seasons (not including the COVID-shortened 2020 season), he played in at least 100 games only once (140 games in 2017). But the 32-year-old played in 102 games in 2024 and 126 games in 2025, and showed what he is capable of when healthy in both of those seasons. Over those 228 games, he blasted 53 home runs, stole 31 bases, hit .270/.330/.540 and produced 8.7 fWAR.
This season, Buxton has played in 61 of 73 games and is hitting .276/.336/.600 with 22 home runs, a 153 wRC+ and 2.8 fWAR, putting him on track for his best season yet. Although the Twins have a subpar 33-40 record and figure to be sellers at the deadline again, Buxton has gone on record saying that he wants to stay with Minnesota for his entire career.
If Buxton can stay on the field and maintain his current form, perhaps the Twins can try to build around him again and reward his loyalty with a stronger team.
