Twins center fielder Byron Buxton will add Home Run Derby to his All-Star duties

Byron Buxton is going back to the All-Star Game and back home to Georgia, this time with his family.

And this time, after consulting with teammates, family and friends, the Twins center fielder is going as a Home Run Derby participant, too.

Buxton played in the 2022 All-Star Game in Los Angeles, when he homered in an American League victory at Dodger Stadium.

Much has changed in Buxton’s life since then. His third son, Baire, was born the next summer.

“The last time as far as family, it was four of us,” Buxton said. “To be able to make it back with my whole family this time is very special, and to do it back home with this Twins uniform is a blessing.”

Buxton’s hometown of Baxley, Ga., is a little more than 200 miles southeast of Truist Park in suburban Atlanta, where Tuesday’s All-Star Game will be played.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli calls Buxton’s 20-homer 2025 season so far a “monumental return for this guy,” and Buxton calls the chance to participate Monday in the home run hitting contest back home an experience too rare to deny.

He’ll compete against such sluggers as Seattle’s record-breaking Cal Raleigh, Washington’s James Wood and hometown hero Ronald Acuña Jr. with Atlanta.

“Now when you’re healthy and you have the opportunity that comes across to do things like this, you don’t tend to pass them up,” said Buxton, 31. “Just having conversations with everybody who needed to know was important to me. It was something I wanted to do, and they supported me.

“Just one of those things, going back home to do something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I know I’m not going to play 30 more years to get back to [the All-Star Game] Atlanta.

“It’s that once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. Talked about it with some close people, guys on the team, friends, family, and everyone got excited.”

Nobody more excited, Buxton said, than his oldest son Brix, 11, a fan of both his dad and the video game “MLB The Show.”

“Brix is probably the most excited,” Buxton said. “He plays ‘MLB The Show’ and he plays the derby all the time. He always was like, `Dad, if you do this, I want to bring you a towel.’ Well, all right, that’s all he cares about. He wants his dad to do it so he can bring him a towel and a Gatorade.

“To me, that’s special. Out of everybody who’s there, all the people he’s going to see, that’s what he wants and cares about. It’s the small things that add up to the big ones.”