Minnesota Twins Activate and Demote Byron Buxton
Baseball Twitter ran amok on Monday morning by reacting, most overreacting, to the activation and demotion of top prospect Byron Buxton to Triple-A Rochester. I really wish I could get worked up about it, but I am not really seeing how this move is a life or death situation for Buxton and Minnesota Twins.
Buxton has just recently been sent off to rehab his hurt thumb and was activated on Monday. Buxton still had 16 days left to rehab which made the move a little alarming to some.
To get down to the nuts and bolts of it: activating Buxton and demoting him uses up one of his option years and he could have been playing in minor league games for another two weeks without using that option via the rehab assignment.
One thing many have pointed out is that the rehab assignment does count towards a players’ MLB service time, so the Twins could be doing this to delay a raise for the youngster.
I wish I could care about this, but I simply do not. I don’t think it’s that big of an issue, but maybe that’s me just being sour about the local boys of summer after going 1-6 on their road trip.
Buxton is an excellent baseball player whom everyone thinks should be a star at the major league level, so the options really shouldn’t matter, but flexibility would be fantastic. So what are the Twins doing?
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If Buxton stays in the minors for less than 20 days, the team gets the option back, like it was never used. So, if I am understanding the rules right, the Twins have demoted Buxton to prevent him from accumulating MLB service time, but will probably call him up on day 19 so that the team does not burn an option on a top-of-the-line prospect.
That’s what seems to be going to me. I could be wrong and I have been wrong before, but that seems like the smartest course of action to me for why the Twins have done such a thing, but again I sit here not real emotionally attached to the move.