Twins Byron Buxton on his health, leadership and hitting approach

WCCO-AM / 830 WCCO

The Twins Byron Buxton had his first fully healthy offseason, without anything to rehab during the winter months, for the first time in a long time. Now he's ready to lead the team back to the playoffs. He talked to WCCO's Jason DeRusha.

Transcript

00:00It was good to see you.

00:01I don't like walking into a club.

00:02I've seen different people.

00:03I ain't going to lie to you.

00:04Isn't his name Bear?

00:05Bear?

00:06Bear?

00:07Yeah.

00:08Hey, Byron.

00:09Jason.

00:10How we doing?

00:11Byron.

00:12Good.

00:13Nice to see you.

00:14Yes, sir.

00:15Last year when we were talking, you were talking about just how much pain you were in one season

00:20ago.

00:21What was it like to go through 100 games feeling pretty good?

00:24Did you feel pretty good?

00:25I made it.

00:26I made it.

00:27I mean, I went on to IEL last year, so at some point, I didn't feel good.

00:30So it's one of those things, keeping perspective.

00:33Don't take this for granted.

00:34Go out there every day, treat it like it's your last, and have fun doing it.

00:38When you look at kind of this team, and really for a while now, you and Correa are sort of,

00:44you know, you're the soul of the team.

00:46Rocco said you guys are the heart and the soul and everyone looks to you.

00:50How do you deal with that?

00:52How do you look at your role as sort of the leader for these guys?

00:56Go about my business.

00:57Like, I'm not about to change just because I'm put in a new role.

01:02Like, when you change, that's when things don't go your way.

01:05So I'm still the same person I was when I walked in here as a rookie.

01:08Like, yeah, I'm a leader, but to these guys, I'm just one of the teammates, one of the

01:14brothers that they can come up and talk to you.

01:17Obviously, when you put a title on it, and you have young guys that come in here, they

01:21feel different.

01:22Like, they can't talk to you, and that's how it was when I came up.

01:27I'm not going to be like that.

01:28I want you to be able to talk, communicate, and do whatever you want to do, and make yourself

01:32better as a player, but also as a person, because this game is going to end.

01:37That's right.

01:38Yeah, and you never know when that time...

01:40That's right.

01:41Right.

01:42That's right.

01:43New hitting approach this year with the team.

01:46Your thoughts on that?

01:47I ain't have the meeting yet to get too much into that, but we hit this offseason together.

01:53It was good.

01:55You know, didn't change nothing.

01:58Working on little bitty stuff that could help me out as far as my game plan, but nothing

02:05physically or mechanically in my swing.

02:07So that was a positive note when, obviously, new hitting guy coming in, and just letting

02:16you know that you're on the right track puts you in a positive spot.

02:19It feels good.

02:20Yeah, for sure.

02:21It's 10 below back in Minnesota right now.

02:23I know.

02:24I don't even know.

02:25That's crazy.

02:26I was there at Twins Fest, and it was colder than Georgia, than Minnesota at that time,

02:34because we had just got snow.

02:35And then probably the last...

02:36You just said...

02:37How many days has it been snowing in Minnesota?

02:38About two, three weeks.

02:39Probably the last two, three weeks, it's been like 75 in Georgia.

02:40So it's been like a couple of weeks.

02:41We did it right.

02:42We did it right being here this week.

02:43I'll tell you that much.

02:44You did.

02:45You did.

02:46It's definitely the best time to be down here with the Twins in Fort Myers.

02:47Your style, by the way, I think you've won the locker room today, which hurts Dustin,

02:48for sure.

02:49I'm just normal.

02:50Just casual.

02:51Looks good, man.

02:52It's my little pajama suit now.

02:53We're excited for you.

02:54Glad to get back at it.

02:55Good to see you.

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