KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For Byron Buxton, the realization hit him when he couldn't steal a base because of the pain in his foot. For Ervin Santana, it was a combination of lack of velocity, a grip that "feels off" and swelling that keeps coming back.
Nagging injuries are mending more slowly than the Twins would like, so on Wednesday, they decided to temporarily shut down both Buxton and Santana to give them more time to heal.
"I didn't trust [his fractured left toe] to put pressure on it," Buxton said of his reluctance to steal a base as a pinch-runner during Tuesday's 2-1 loss. "I knew then, if I couldn't steal a base, then something ain't right. It's changing the way I'm playing."
Buxton was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Wednesday, and will have x-rays and a magnetic resonance imaging test done on his left foot when the team returns to Minneapolis on Thursday.
"He's been trying to fight through this thing for awhile. … [It's] been very problematic, in terms of mechanics, being able to swing properly, and all those types of things. It's taken away some of his aggressiveness as a baserunner," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "When I watch him take certain swings, he has to step out and regroup. I wouldn't say it's overly noticeable, but if you're paying attention, you can see how it affects him."
Buxton is just 6-for-47 (.128) since returning to action three weeks after fracturing his left big toe in a rehab game with Class A Fort Myers. "Trying to hit off your heel instead of the ball of your foot is not conducive to staying on the ball, especially the ball where he has to reach out over the plate," Molitor said.
The pain never subsided, and Buxton realized "pretty quick" after being activated May 10 that it was going to be a problem. But "you don't want to feel like you're letting your team down. So I put that in my head: Hitting is going to come around, just keep playing defense," Buxton said. "It was [a problem at the plate] pretty much the whole time. Trying to land, trying to find different ways to keep it from barking. Each time, I'd find myself having a different swing."
Santana, meanwhile, was hoping the middle finger on his pitching hand would have healed by now from his Feb. 4 surgery to remove a calcium deposit, and he began a rehab assignment last week in hopes of return to the majors by early June. But "almost on a daily basis, we're dealing with some kind of swelling or discomfort" in the finger, Molitor said, and his first two rehab starts were discouraging. Santana's velocity was mostly in the high 80s, far from the 94-mph he threw during his All-Star season last year.
