Souhan: Twins’ Byron Buxton has had a 13-year journey to stardom

The Twins made Byron Buxton the second pick in the 2012 amateur draft, right after the Astros selected Carlos Correa. Thirteen years later, Buxton is performing like the everyday superstar the Twins hoped he would be.

Because the big-league Twins were inept and Buxton was their primary reason for hope, starting in 2013, then-Star Tribune sports editor Glen Crevier asked me to chronicle Buxton’s rise to the majors.

Photographer Jerry Holt joined me in visiting Buxton and his family in Baxley, Ga.; in Atlanta, where he bought a townhouse so he could work out with other big-leaguers in the winter; and in Fort Myers, Fla., where he bought a house near the Twins spring training complex.

I saw Buxton play — and rehabilitate injuries — at various minor league stops. As Buxton prepares to play in the All-Star Game and compete in the Home Run Derby in his home state, here are some of my most vivid memories of chronicling his rise to stardom:

After the draft, the Twins brought Buxton to Target Field, and he took batting practice. He hit an alarming number of balls into the netting of the batting cage. This was a superior athlete, not a polished baseball player.

Buxton surged at Class A Cedar Rapids, mimicking the destruction caused by another athletic hurricane, Mike Trout, a few years earlier in the Midwest League.

Buxton hit a house beyond the left-field fence with a home run, and played like the five-tool centerfielder teams dream of.

“He would hit a routine ground ball, and beat it out, and the other team would be in shock,” said Twins third base coach Tommy Watkins, who coached Buxton at Cedar Rapids. “He would hit a comebacker to the mound, and almost beat it out. Other teams had trouble believing what they were seeing.”

Buxton and young slugger Miguel Sano were the basis for all Twins hope in the mid-2010s. In June 2014, I visited them in Fort Myers, where they were both rehabilitating injuries.

They jogged onto a practice field one day. To play catch, they needed one glove and four people.

Buxton had an injured left wrist, so he couldn’t catch. Sano had undergone Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, so he couldn’t throw.

They had time to kill, so they fished together. I asked to come along, envisioning young millionaires on a yacht. They took me to a local road, pulled their pickup trucks onto the shoulder, and started casting in a ditch.

“Most of the time, we just waste time together,” Buxton said then. “I was driving the other day and I saw him on the side of the road. I thought his car must be broken down, so I turned around to help him out. He said, `No, just fishing.’ So I joined him.”

Buxton allowed Holt and me to visit his family home in Baxley.

Baxley is a small town in southern Georgia. It’s spread out, and quiet, and features beautiful high school sports facilities. As a senior, Buxton led Appling County High to the state title, striking out 18 in a complete-game victory in the title game and batting .513 for the season. His fastball was clocked at 100 mph.

Buxton’s family proved to be much like him — quiet, reserved and pleasant. His father drove a truck, which is why Buxton’s on-field celebration is called “The Buck Truck.” Even after having received a $6 million signing bonus from the Twins, Buxton was expected to mow the lawn.

The site of this week’s All-Star Game is also where Buxton’s agents worked, and ran a baseball gym. Buxton bought a house in Atlanta early in his career so he could work out there during the winter.

Typical of his single-mindedness, he would rise well before dawn every morning that winter in Atlanta and run for miles before heading to the gym.

The Twins had traditionally avoided promoting or hyping their top prospects. The Star Tribune hadn’t invested heavily in covering them during the 2000s, because the big-league team was always competitive.

When Crevier proposed treating Buxton like a rising star, the Twins agreed to provide remarkable access.

These days, Buxton might not allow anyone in the media to visit his home. As a young minor leaguer, he invited Holt and me to three of his homes, and we spent time with his future wife, Lindsey, and oldest son, Brixton.

The impression we got was that Buxton had no interest in anything other than baseball and family, which might be why he never had any missteps off the field.

His talent was always obvious. He has been one of the fastest players in all of baseball since the day he was drafted. He’s one of the best fielders of his generation. He has learned to drive the ball instead of relying solely on his speed.

Thirteen years of development culminated this weekend in Buxton, on the day his bobblehead was given away, hitting for the first cycle of his career and the first cycle in Target Field history, as he prepared to travel to his home state to compete in the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.

To complete the cycle, he had to hit a home run on an 0-2 breaking pitch. Sunday morning, the Twins sent the helmet he wore to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“As part of the unique nature of our game, we have giveaways that are made of ceramic, with springs and spring-coiled heads that people love and will cherish for their entire life,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have quirky stuff that happens in our game. We have rules, and weird traditions. We play seven days a week. You have to make it a little weird and have different things to do.

“This is one of those times where it’s not just one cool, unique thing going on. There’s several tons of them all connecting with one of the best players in the game having one of the best days you’ll ever see on a baseball field.

“People will not forget that day.”

They might not forget what comes next.

7 p.m. • Atlanta (ESPN)

The Home Run Derby has three rounds. In the first round, each player has three minutes or 40 pitches (whichever comes first) to hit as many home runs as possible, with a bonus period for each player that lasts until they record three outs (any non-homer swing). A home run of at least 425 feet in the bonus period gets a player a fourth out. The top four hitters advance, with longest distance used to break ties, with the four hitters seeded by their first-round totals.

Players will have two minutes or 27 pitches in the semifinals and finals, and ties are broken by a 60-second “swing-off.” The eight participants and their 2025 home run totals:

Byron Buxton, Twins, 21

Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay, 23

Jazz Chisholm Jr., New York Yankees, 17

Oneil Cruz, Pittsburgh, 16

Matt Olson, Atlanta, 17

Cal Raleigh, Seattle, 38

Brent Rooker, Athletics, 20

James Wood, Washington, 24