KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As Byron Buxton adapted to his new role as a part-time designated hitter last season, it was a conversation between Bryce Harper and former MVP Jimmy Rollins that helped put things in perspective for him.
“Bryce was like, ‘It’s hard,’ ” Buxton said at the beginning of spring training. “Mentally, it is very hard, especially if you’re going on a streak or a slump. If you’re not playing defense, you ain’t got nothing to take your mind off of that.”
Among Rollins’ messages, per The Athletic: “It’s OK if you’re hurt,” and “it’s OK to make outs,” and “find a distraction.”
For the time being, Buxton, who had season-ending knee surgery last year, will be serving as the Minnesota Twins’ designated hitter, and while there’s been an adjustment process, the center fielder seems to have found a rhythm. While he’s not impacting the Twins on defense, Buxton has made his mark in the first three games of the season, where he’s 6 for 13 at the plate.
“My routine is about eight minutes long. I know exactly what I want to do. I know exactly what I want to feel. It’s very quick. I’m simple. I get in, see ball, hit ball. And it keeps me from overthinking. So right now, DHing allows you a little more time — gives you that time to overthink. For me, I just kind of slow my process down a little bit more.”
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What that means for him now, without center field responsibilities to capture some of his attention, is that he’s spending more time watching his at-bats.
“I actually play a little bit more around with video pitching, trying to see if — we have analytical guys that do what they’re supposed to do, but just in case they miss something or overlook something, it’s something I can go ask them about his pickoff move or a pitch tip or whatever situation may be,” Buxton said.
As for when he’ll go out to center field, Buxton has still been doing glove work with third base coach Tommy Watkins, who works with the outfielders, but the Twins are focused more on having him prepare to DH for now.
“Ultimately he’s our designated hitter and I need to focus on that first and foremost and get him through those games and we’ll start to progress the other part of it as we move through to warmer weather, hopefully,” trainer Nick Paparesta said.
Weather concerns
Chilly temperatures in the forecast for Thursday could cause the Twins to move their home opener at Target Field to Friday, which is a scheduled off day. The high for Thursday is expected to be around 34 degrees while Friday is projected to be sunny with temperatures in the high 40s and potentially low 50s.
That’s at least caused the Twins to take a look at whether they should move the scheduled game back a day.
“We’ll see in the coming probably one or two days,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I’m going to guess if there is a decision to be made about that or moving Opening Day, my guess is it’ll be done a couple of days early.”
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