Buxton 'in good spirits,' day to day after Friday's early exit with right shoulder injury

MINNEAPOLIS -- Byron Buxton arrived at Target Field “in good spirits” on Saturday morning after suffering a shoulder injury in Friday night’s win over the Royals, manager Derek Shelton said.

Buxton, who aggravated the same right shoulder that has bothered him for about two weeks, was held out of Saturday’s game as scheduled. However, he was not placed on the injured list, and Shelton indicated that he has not yet been ruled out of playing in Sunday’s series finale against Kansas City.

The Twins have an off day Monday before a short trip to Detroit, so it would not be surprising if they took advantage of the opportunity to sit Buxton until Tuesday so as to let him recuperate more fully.

“He's OK,” Shelton said. “He walked in, he was in good spirits. I think we'll get him through the training room and walk him through his regular routine and kind of see where he's at. He hit the wall hard. … I think the most important thing with Buck is you can kind of tell when he comes in, where he's at spirit-wise. He was in my office early this morning [and] he was in good spirits, so that's definitely encouraging.”

Buxton has been dealing with discomfort in both his hip and his throwing shoulder for some time now. He was limited to playing designated hitter for the last week of May, but he returned to center field on Tuesday. For the year, he has a .257/.319/.549 slash line and leads the Twins with 18 home runs.