ATLANTA -- After hitting for the cycle on his bobblehead day on Saturday, Twins superstar Byron Buxton had hoped to maintain personal momentum at the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on Monday night at Truist Park.
Alas, this was not a night for the “Buck Truck” celebration that has been standard in Buxton’s transcendent 2025 season. The Buck stopped here in the second round, when Buxton matched up against the Rays’ Junior Caminero and fell, 8-7.
“I feel like I had more pressure in the Derby than I did in the cycle,” Buxton said afterward. “It was different. But it's something that I'm glad I did. You know, I'm glad I stepped out of that box and opened up a little bit more within myself to give myself a chance.”
In his first try at the Derby, Buxton, a Georgia native, put on an impressive show in the first round. He batted fifth among the eight contestants, knowing he needed, at minimum, 16 blasts to move on. He had hit only 11 with 30 seconds left in his three-minute regulation period but found his groove with a finishing flourish. He hit three homers in those last 30 seconds, then used his bonus period -- which is untimed (batters get to make three outs, or four if they hit a homer at least 425 feet) -- to smash six more, for 20 total.
“I think just having the time, you know, not being in a rush, being able to take a pitch and then get back to it [helped],” Buxton said.
That was enough to get Buxton to the second round, alongside Caminero, the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz and the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh. The remaining players were seeded based on their first-round totals.
In his matchup with Caminero, Buxton, the third seed, batted first and went deep six times in two minutes of regulation, then once more in his bonus period. But Caminero, the two seed, outlasted him with eight in only one minute of regulation.
“I felt good,” he said. “But I couldn't really figure out the rhythm in the second round.”
Buxton, who used Minnesota third-base coach Tommy Watkins as his Derby pitcher, was the eighth Twins hitter to compete in the event (nine appearances overall), joining Tom Brunansky (1985), Gary Gaetti (1989), Torii Hunter (2002), Justin Morneau (2007 and ‘08), Joe Mauer (2009), Brian Dozier (2014) and Miguel Sanó (2017).
Morneau’s win in 2008, when he outlasted Josh Hamilton at Yankee Stadium, remains the Twins’ lone triumph in this annual power platform.
Still, this was a chance for a wider baseball audience to watch and appreciate Buxton, who at 31 remains one of the game's top talents even after enduring a litany of injury issues in his career. He’s an All-Star for the second time, a reward for a first half in which he slashed .289/.351/.574 with 21 homers, 14 doubles, four triples and 17 steals. He’s on pace for the highest full-season OPS+ (149) of his career.
On Saturday, on the day the Twins gave out a “Buck Truck” bobblehead, Buxton sealed his first career cycle with a seventh-inning blast to the batter’s eye in center at Target Field.
Becoming the first player to cycle and win a Derby within a few days of each other would have been quite the feat.
“It ain't the outcome I wanted,” Buxton said of his Derby appearance. “But I'm ecstatic that my boys got to come out and watch me do this and do it at home.”
And Buxton’s All-Star appearance Tuesday a little over 200 miles from his Baxley, Ga., hometown will be a fine consolation prize.