Byron Buxton Is Healthy and Thriving for the Twins

Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton is known for his incredible power-speed combination, and over the last month or so, he’s been just about as good as we’ve ever seen him. Buxton’s story over recent years has revolved around his health (or lack thereof) and what could have been if he didn’t have so many health issues keeping him off the field.

Luckily for baseball fans, a healthy Buxton is exactly what we’ve gotten this season. He’s only played 100 games in a season twice in his now 11-year MLB career, and he’s certainly on pace to reach that threshold this year.

On the season, he’s slashing .280/.346/.559 with 17 home runs and 47 RBIs to go along with 13 stolen bases. Oh, and he hasn’t been caught stealing at all.

Buxton is the definition of a five-tool player, those tools being contact, power, speed, fielding, and arm strength. Let’s get into Buxton’s prowess in each of those areas and why he’s proving to be one of the league’s best in 2025.

Streaky Contact Hitter

Starting with Byron Buxton’s contact ability, which is by far his worst of these five tools, he still sits near the top of the league. Over a larger sample, Buxton wouldn’t necessarily hit for a high average or make contact with the MLB’s best. However, he goes through stretches where his hitting ability is nearly unparalleled.

In the month of June thus far, Buxton is slashing .313/.420/.687 and has been making much more consistent contact than normal. On the season, his 27.4% strikeout rate ranks in the 13th percentile, and it’s always been a struggle for him to be consistent in this area of his game. In June, however, his strikeout rate is just 17.3%.

His career batting average of .247 reflects the struggles he’s had to consistently put bat to ball, but a player like Buxton must have his contact ability examined in portions to account for his many hot and cold streaks.

To see this, one can simply look at Buxton’s six multi-hit games in the month of June and his five hitting streaks of three or more games this season, including a seven-game stretch in which he tallied 12 hits and three home runs.

He’s also been a much more patient hitter this season than in previous years, boasting a walk rate of 8.6%. This walk rate only lands Buxton in the 53rd percentile of MLB hitters, but it’s much better than the 5.2% walk rate he posted last year. If he is able to play a full season in 2025, he would handily surpass his single-season career high in walks.

Superb Slugger

One of Byron Buxton’s most valuable attributes is his raw power at the plate. When healthy, he’s always among the league’s best sluggers, and in 2025, we’re seeing an All-Star-calibre season on full display. His Baseball Savant page boasts many high-ranking red bubbles across his statistics, and one could easily mistake it for that of a recent MVP winner at first glance.

In 2025, Buxton ranks in the 92nd percentile in barrel rate (15.6%), 96th percentile in hard-hit rate (54.5%), 89th percentile in average bat speed (75.1 MPH), and his batting run value of +18 lands him in Baseball Savant’s 95th percentile league-wide.

Buxton is tied for fifth in MLB in what Baseball Savant calls ‘no-doubter’ home runs, meaning swings that would be a home run in all 30 ballparks. He’s tied with former NL home run king Kyle Schwarber at 12, and only Eugenio Suárez (18), Aaron Judge (14), Shohei Ohtani (13), and Cal Raleigh (13) have more this season.

His 17 home runs are tied for fifth in the American League and seventh among all outfielders this season.

Fast as a Buck

While he is nicknamed “Buck” as a mere abbreviation of his last name, Byron Buxton’s legs seem to bear more similarities to those of a deer than of the average human. He’s shown his incredible speed year after year and still somehow is underrated in discussions of the fastest runners in MLB.

His 2025 sprint speed is barely behind Bobby Witt Jr. for the number one spot in all of baseball this season. Witt’s 30.4 ft/s sprint speed slightly bests Buxton’s 30.3 ft/s mark, but Buxton’s is still good enough for him to rank first among all outfielders.

He’s one of only five players this season to have at least 10 stolen bases without being caught once. Buxton is also tied for third in MLB in Statcast’s baserunning runs, a quantification of a player’s value as a baserunner. The only baserunners more valuable to their teams this season have been Corbin Carroll, who also led MLB in this metric in 2023 and ’24, and Elly De La Cruz, last year’s stolen base king.

Slick Fielder

Byron Buxton’s defense is yet another of the incredible skills that make him one of the most valuable names in baseball. His 4 Outs Above Average (OAA) put him in the 93rd percentile of MLB this season, and his 89.1 mph average arm strength ranks in the top 20% of the league.

This arm strength is the lowest of his career, as he’s topped 90 mph every other season he’s been in MLB. Still, among center fielders with at least 100 competitive throws, he has the 15th-strongest average arm strength.

Thanks to his top-tier sprint speed, Buxton is able to track down flyballs that most other fielders can only hope to catch. His fielding run value of +3 (per Statcast) sits in the 81st percentile of the league, and last season was the only qualified season of his career where he finished below the 90th percentile in this metric.

Injuries have hampered his fielding ability over the years, but he remains an excellent defensive player.

While Buxton may not necessarily be the best player according to any individual statistic, it is not his skill in any one area that is interesting, but rather his rare combination of all five tools. Often, the term “five-tool player” is given out when a player can hit, field, and run decently well, but Buxton takes this to a whole new level. He doesn’t just have five tools, he has a whole box of them.

As of the update on June 23, Buxton sat 10th in All-Star voting among American League outfielders, but he’s deserving of much more support. His 3.1 fWAR is only second among AL outfielders behind, obviously, Aaron Judge and his absolutely ridiculous 6.1 fWAR already.

Buxton may not earn himself a starting All-Star spot this season due to the incredible performances of his fellow outfielders, but this is shaping up to be one of those amazing Buxton seasons we’ve been promised so many times.

Of course, we still have to consider his health; he’ll always wear the “injury-prone” label. In 2023, he played all of his 80 games out of the DH spot due to injury. This season, he’s played all but one of his games in center field, where he can show off his range, speed, and arm with the best of them. Baseball is better when Byron Buxton is healthy, and boy, has it been good this year.