Twins’ Byron Buxton agrees to a reported seven-year, $100 million contract extension with MVP incentives

NS Minnesota Twins agreed to extend the long-term contract with the center operator Byron Buxton, Jim Bowden of CBS Sports HQ confirmed. The deal lasted seven years and $100 million, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

Buxton, 27, is set to become a free agent after the 2022 season. News around the league is that the Twins are either planning a long-term extension with him or swapping him out before next season.

With the huge advantage Buxton has appeared on the field over the multitude of problems he has had to be on the pitch, the deal makes sense for both sides with some MVP incentives based on any end in the game. The top 10 that Buxton had during that process:

As Rosenthal noted, we’ve never seen anything like this. That, of course, is the situation the Twins and Buxton find themselves in during an upcoming free agency or commercial discussion where it will be extremely difficult to determine his exact worth.

Buxton is heading into the 28-year season and has the potential to become a five-instrument superstar in conversation with MVP. He hit .306 / .358 / .647 (171 OPS+) last season, but that was only in 61 games. He had 23 doubles, 19 home hits, 32 RBIs, 50 runs and nine steals of 254 appearances. Throw his silly defenses in the center and he’s worth 4.5 WAR. If he can maintain that pace throughout 162, he’ll be the lead for MVP.

Due to several underage dismissals earlier in his career and lingering injury problems, Buxton played just over 92 games once in his career (140 games in 2017). Even in 2020 which has shortened the pandemic, he has only played 39 out of 60 matches.

But when he joined, perhaps no player was more active in baseball. The Twins’ annual spend is perfectly acceptable for their finances, and if he plays well enough to win MVP, they’ll be happy to pay an extra $8 million. On the Buxton side, he’s signed a contract that guarantees him $100 million, and he’s certainly confident enough that he can earn some incentive to vote that MVP.

All this is to say, it looks like they’ve reached a win-win agreement. Kudo for both sides.