Byron Buxton says he’s ‘excited’ that Pohlads will remain as Twins owners

NEW YORK – Byron Buxton has made it clear several times this summer how much he wants to remain a Twin. He was happy to hear Wednesday that he’s not the only one.

Buxton, the longest-tenured Twin, said he was “excited” to learn that the Pohlad family, who four years ago signed him to a seven-year, $100 million contract, will remain in charge of the only team for which he has ever played.

“It’s good to know the people who signed me are still in charge,” Buxton said. “That makes the conversations a little bit easier, knowing that my whole tenure here, I’ve been under the Pohlads. I know the family a little bit.”

Most of his teammates do not, which is part of the reason why the players haven’t discussed the possible sale of the team, called off by the Pohlads on Wednesday.

“That’s something we can’t control, so we didn’t put much focus around it,” he said. “Just tried to go out and play baseball.”

It hasn’t gone well this year, he conceded, but Buxton said he has “a lot” of confidence the current management team headed by Joe Pohlad, including team President Derek Falvey and General Manager Jeremy Zoll, will eventually build a championship contender — especially with the financial infusion coming from the Pohlads’ new limited partners.

“This is kind of something that had to be figured out on the business side to kind of move things forward,” Buxton said. “The people [who are] coming over to help out is giving them a little bit more time … to figure out how to get things better.”

“One of the main reasons why I came to this organization in the first place was because of the Pohlads and the type of owners that they are and how they treat people,” said Baldelli, who has won three division titles in his seven seasons in Minnesota. “They’ve been a big part of my stay here and a lot of the successes that we’ve had here, as well. I was pleased to see the news that they were going to stay involved as a family.”

Speaking of Buxton, he has led off six games with a home run this season. Baldelli would like him to stop.

Not stop hitting the home runs, but maybe doing so with a runner or two on base. Of Buxton’s 24 home runs this season, 19 have come with bases empty, eighth-most in the majors. Which is why Baldelli this week has moved Buxton, the Twins’ leadoff hitter in 58 of his 87 starts, to the second spot in the Twins lineup.

“Trying to give him a little bit more of an opportunity to hit with people on base,” Baldelli said. “He’s obviously been very good in the leadoff spot. Buck actually volunteered to hit anywhere without me even having to ask him about that. He likes hitting leadoff, but that would never stop him from doing whatever he can to help the team.”

The Twins held a pregame meeting in the bullpen for their pitching staff, and there was a special guest. A seven-time Cy Young winner, actually.

His message?

“Confidence,” righthander Brooks Kriske said. “It’s just trusting yourself and believing in yourself and having that confidence that your best stuff can beat any hitter out there.”

Easy to say for someone who struck out 4,672 batters, third-most in MLB history, right? But veteran Thomas Hatch said you don’t have to have a Clemens fastball to be confident, and for that confidence to pay off.

“It’s a chicken-and-egg thing. When you’re confident, your stuff’s better, too. If you can stay confident, then your stuff plays up as well,” said Hatch, who met Clemens at a prospect showcase when he was in high school. “He’s a big work ethic guy. He falls back on his training and worked really hard, trusted in that. His confidence showed up, and his stuff was good because of that.”

“In today’s age, kids would call it that aura,” Kriske added. “The aura you have when you’re pitching. And he was the bulldog.”

“Please,” Kody Clemens said. “I’ve heard the speech a million times.”