Byron Buxton, the top prospect in baseball, taken off on a stretcher in first Double-A game

27 Comments

Twins outfield prospect Byron Buxton, rated by most outlets as the most promising young talent in baseball, was promoted this week from High-A Fort Myers to Double-A New Britain. But he apparently suffered a major injury in his first game Wednesday evening with the New Britain Rock Cats …

There’s been no status update yet from the Rock Cats. Buxton was the second overall pick in the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft out of a Georgia high school and has hit .301/.390/.487 in 203 career minor league games.

***********************

UPDATE, 10:21 p.m. ET: Via Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Twins vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff told the Pioneer Press he’d been told Buxton “was responsive after the collision.” That knowledge was second-hand, Radcliff stressed, saying that it had come from one of Buxton’s agents.

UPDATE, 10:33 p.m. ET: New information here from Yahoo’s Jeff Passan

Dodgers place pitcher Noah Syndergaard on injured list with no timetable for return

dodgers syndergaard
Katie Stratman/USA TODAY Sports
0 Comments

CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”