Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Byron Buxton was born December 18, 1993, in Baxley, Georgia. He is a centerfielder in the MLB.

Buxton attended Appling County High School in Baxley, Georgia. He was considered by some baseball analysts to be the most talented player available in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft, and was selected as the second overall pick. He won Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year Award in 2013. Buxton made his MLB debut in 2015 and he won the Gold Glove Award in 2017.

In 2019, he batted .262. He had the fastest sprint speed of all American League players, at 30.3 feet/second. In 2020, Buxton established a career-high 13 home runs despite playing in only 39 games.

In the abbreviated 2020 Major League Baseball season, Buxton played 39 of Minnesota's 60 games, primarily missing time due to a shoulder injury sustained in late August. Despite the injury, Buxton had a successful season, including a career-high .577 slugging percentage.

Buxton was named the American League Player of the Month for April 2021, when he hit .426 with 8 home runs and 14 RBIs.

On December 1, 2021, Buxton signed a seven-year, $100 million contract extension with the Twins.

When Carlos Correa joined the Twins for the 2022 season, he and Buxton became the third pair of players picked first and second in the same draft to then play for one club. In June 2022, Buxton hit his 44th home run since he had last grounded into a double play, which occurred on September 7, 2020, surpassing a record of 43 held by Matt Carpenter.