Minnesota Twins Make Final Push for Byron Buxton's All-Star Spot

Byron Buxton entered Thursday hitting .268 with 25 home runs, 43 RBIs, 56 runs scored and a .898 OPS through 73 games. As of Thursday night, the Minnesota Twins center fielder’s 25 homers ranked second in the American League, one behind Houston’s Yordan Alvarez.

Selected second overall by Minnesota in the 2012 MLB Draft, the 32-year-old is chasing a third career All-Star selection after earning nods in 2022 and 2025. He set a career high with 35 home runs in 2025 and made Target Field history on April 13, passing Max Kepler as the ballpark’s all-time home run leader with 85 on a solo shot against Boston.

But with the voting window down to its final hours, Minnesota was not leaving anything to chance.

Before Phase 2 of All-Star balloting closed at noon ET on Thursday, the Twins made a final push for Buxton’s starting spot, posting a plea on X that pointed fans to twins.com/vote.

“We’re in the final stretch which means you need to go vote for Buck RIGHT NOW!!!!” the team wrote.

Buxton is one of six AL outfield finalists in the Starters Election, joined by Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger of the Yankees, Mike Trout of the Angels and Daulton Varsho and Jesus Sanchez of the Blue Jays. The top three vote-getters will earn the AL’s starting outfield spots for the July 14 All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia’s first since 1996.

Buxton reached the finalist round with more than 1.6 million Phase 1 votes, but those totals were wiped when Phase 2 opened Monday and every finalist started from zero. Fans could return once a day to cast a fresh vote until the window closed.

The push came with Buxton out of the lineup. The veteran outfielder has not played since going 0-for-4 as the designated hitter against Colorado on Sunday, and after he was scratched from Monday’s lineup in Houston, an MRI revealed a right hip impingement (via The Athletic’s Dan Hayes). He is considered day-to-day, no injured-list move is planned and he missed all three games of the Astros series.

Twins manager Derek Shelton offered an encouraging update during a WCCO Morning News interview on Wednesday (via WCCO Radio’s Lindsey Peterson).

“But it’s important for us to get him back,” Shelton said. “I think after we got the MRI result, and we saw that it wasn’t anything significant, it’s just a matter of building back up.”

Fresh off Wednesday’s 8-3 win over Houston, Minnesota was off Thursday. The victory lifted the club to 42-46, third in the AL Central and four games behind the Guardians and White Sox, who sit in a virtual tie atop the division after Cleveland’s 6-5 win over Chicago on Thursday night — the Guardians at 46-42, the White Sox at 45-41.

The Twins open a road series against the Yankees on Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET, and the elected starters will be revealed Saturday, July 4 on FOX.