Reusse: Against all odds, Byron Buxton rediscovers his greatness following years of injuries

You’re in the car on a Friday afternoon and the first radio option is the MLB Network on the chance the Cubs are scheduled to be playing at Wrigley Field.

Booyah! It was late in the game, the Cubs were rolling to a victory over the Cardinals, and Hall of Famer Pat Hughes and his happy-go-lucky analyst, Ron Coomer, were having a good time in the booth.

The Cubs’ Daniel Palencia was working in relief in the eighth, a younger pitcher with a live arm. And Coomer made this comment: “That was a get-it-over fastball from Palencia … at 101.”

And then our guy Coom laughed.

I’ve been fixated lately by a belief that big-league hitters have never before faced the challenges out there for them today. At the start of this century, if some gent threw a 100-mph pitch, it would get at least a mention in the Associated Press game story sent around the country.

Now a guy mopping up a lopsided victory is hitting 100 while making sure it’s going to be a strike.

The action on breaking pitches is so varied that they have had to come up with new terms to differentiate sliders, and throwing a pitch in the middle of plate — the old “hot zone” — occurs about a dozen times a game.

Which only adds to my amazement at the ability of the Twins’ Byron Buxton to find greatness at this point of his career. He is not only having a huge season at age 31 and after a myriad of physical misfortunes, he is doing so at a time when it’s more difficult to produce as a hitter than at any time in the Grand Old Game’s history.

My son “Mr. Baseball” and I went on a vacation to Arizona in 2013 to watch Fall League games — with the main attraction being to see the 19-year-old Buxton. He had been the second overall selection (behind shortstop Carlos Correa to Houston) a year earlier, and then had an exceptional 2013 summer for Cedar Rapids in what was then the low-Class A Midwest League.

We were able to see Buxton run (wowza!), and in just a couple of at-bats it was obvious there was work to do. Then he suffered a left shoulder strain on a check swing and was shut down.

If you go through the litany of Buxton’s injuries, that was probably the one you could call “soft” — but not playing was the Twins’ decision, not his.

Phil Miller was in Phoenix for the Star Tribune that fall and mentioned the rave reviews that Buxton was receiving as MLB’s leading prospect.

“I see the pitches I didn’t hit, the balls I didn’t get to. Bad jumps, getting fooled by pitches, bad throws … I can be better at everything.”

He was overmatched as a hitter in a 46-game arrival with the Twins in 2015, still overmatched in 2016 (.225), and then terrific in 2017. He was only 23 that season and there was great hope that a taller, faster Kirby Puckett was ready to take over center field ... to fight Mike Trout to be the American Leaguer in All-Star Games for years to come.

Then came the avalanche of injuries, with periods of migraines thrown in. Real stuff: breaks and damaged joints. He was back in center field and a first-time All-Star in 2022, but then came August — his jinx month — and there was a knee that was now worse than ever.

Come 2023, and it was left to Twins manager Rocco Baldelli to repeat almost daily that Buxton’s only option at the time was to serve as the designated hitter. Batting average: .207. He was as suited to that as Christian Vázquez would be.

Last season, Buxton played a sizable piece of the season in center, but again came August, the injuries flared and Buxton again was out of the lineup for weeks.

Which makes the 2025 season the most astounding turn to greatness we’ve seen from a major league athlete in the 65 years of being a big-league area. I offered this challenge to a number of sports nuts:

Name another athlete in a team sport that we had decided over a long period would never show greatness again ... and it happened in the manner of Buxton, circa 2025.

Answer: “Can’t think of anyone.”

We have to be astounded. And we should be thrilled for the man, who always wanted to compete fully and do better — from the time Phil Miller was interviewing him in Arizona a dozen years ago.

What do you think, Rocco, as the Twins’ season winds down Sunday in Philadelphia, should be the view of Buxton’s incredible comeback?