Twins' Byron Buxton exits Wednesday's game with right knee injury

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CHICAGO — Byron Buxton was removed from Wednesday's game with right knee soreness.

The Minnesota Twins' center fielder exited the field after a non-competitive stolen base attempt in the second inning against the Chicago White Sox, pulling up without a slide and then limping off under his own power.

Before the start of the next inning, the Twins removed Buxton from the game and replaced him with Willi Castro, who moved to center field from third base.

Buxton scored the go-ahead runs in the team's wins on Monday and Tuesday, its eighth and ninth straight victories.

Since many people in the Twin Cities can't watch #MNTwins games right now.. this just happened.

Byron Buxton limps off the field after sprinting to second base.

Willi Castro is now in center field, Jose Miranda goes to third. pic.twitter.com/0iMEpdsIZJ

— Alec Ausmus (@A_TwiceKSTP) May 1, 2024

Buxton, who singled in his lone at-bat Wednesday, is batting .250/.300/.391 with one home run and 11 RBIs in 100 plate appearances this season. After not appearing in center field at all during the 2023 season, Buxton was playing his 24th game in the field (20 starts) this season and his 28th game overall on Wednesday.

Knee injuries sidetracked Buxton's previous two seasons. He required surgery after each, including ending his 2022 campaign early.

Buxton only appeared in 85 games during the 2023 season, missing time with knee and hamstring injuries. Despite being limited to 92 games in 2022, Buxton broke out and had a monster first half, leading to an All-Star nod.

Over his 10-year career, Buxton has played 100 games only one time — in the 2017 season, when he appeared in 140 contests.

Buxton's injury comes just as the Twins appeared to be getting healthy. Carlos Correa returned on Monday following a 16-game absence with a right intercostal strain. Reliever Jhoan Duran also returned this week and got a save in his first appearance after missing a month with a right oblique strain.

The Twins are still missing third baseman Royce Lewis, who played only three innings on Opening Day before suffering a right quad strain that could sideline him for at least eight weeks.

In spite of their injuries, the Twins entered Wednesday on a nine-game winning streak, the team's longest since 2008.

The team didn't offer any further details on Buxton's knee injury other than to note Twins manager Rocco Baldelli would have more information after the game.

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(Photo of Byron Buxton on April 28: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)