Byron Buxton's resolve to do more base stealing comes with some new equipment.
The Twins' stolen base leader has begun pulling on a protective mitten for his left hand once he reaches base, in order to protect his fingers.
"I'm just trying to be more careful," Buxton said of the blue mitten, which has a metal insert that covers all but the tips of his fingers. "I started two weeks ago, just to keep my fingers safe."
Buxton missed most of last season with a variety of injuries, and he doesn't want anything as preventable as a broken finger to cost him playing time this year, especially since he vowed last week to be more aggressive about stealing bases.
Buxton said he has been advised in the past to protect his hands by sliding feet-first, so he's not jamming his fingers into the base. But "for me, I'm more likely to be safe if I go in headfirst. I'm faster. But you just have to be careful."
Sano on tour
Miguel Sano's rehab assignment, which begins Tuesday with Class A Fort Myers, will be a tour of the Twins' minor league system, with additional stops at Class AA Pensacola and AAA Rochester, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.
"He's going to probably play partial games early on in Fort Myers, play some third and probably DH a little bit," Baldelli said. "[He'll] ramp up to the point where he's playing full games. He has to get to a number of at-bats, which I'm not ready to put that number out there, but he has to get a sufficient number of at-bats where we feel confident that we're not [doing] him a disservice."
The results won't matter much, not at first, the manager said. Since Sano hasn't played at a high level since January, the Twins don't want to be fooled by early success into believing he's ready.
