The Twins Byron Buxton had his first fully healthy offseason, without anything to rehab during the winter months, for the first time in a long time. Now he's ready to lead the team back to the playoffs. He talked to WCCO's Jason DeRusha.
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00:00It was good to see you.
00:01I don't like walking into a club.
00:02I've seen different people.
00:03I ain't going to lie to you.
00:04Isn't his name Bear?
00:05Bear?
00:06Bear?
00:07Yeah.
00:08Hey, Byron.
00:09Jason.
00:10How we doing?
00:11Byron.
00:12Good.
00:13Nice to see you.
00:14Yes, sir.
00:15Last year when we were talking, you were talking about just how much pain you were in one season
00:20ago.
00:21What was it like to go through 100 games feeling pretty good?
00:24Did you feel pretty good?
00:25I made it.
00:26I made it.
00:27I mean, I went on to IEL last year, so at some point, I didn't feel good.
00:30So it's one of those things, keeping perspective.
00:33Don't take this for granted.
00:34Go out there every day, treat it like it's your last, and have fun doing it.
00:38When you look at kind of this team, and really for a while now, you and Correa are sort of,
00:44you know, you're the soul of the team.
00:46Rocco said you guys are the heart and the soul and everyone looks to you.
00:50How do you deal with that?
00:52How do you look at your role as sort of the leader for these guys?
00:56Go about my business.
00:57Like, I'm not about to change just because I'm put in a new role.
01:02Like, when you change, that's when things don't go your way.
01:05So I'm still the same person I was when I walked in here as a rookie.
01:08Like, yeah, I'm a leader, but to these guys, I'm just one of the teammates, one of the
01:14brothers that they can come up and talk to you.
01:17Obviously, when you put a title on it, and you have young guys that come in here, they
01:21feel different.
01:22Like, they can't talk to you, and that's how it was when I came up.
01:27I'm not going to be like that.
01:28I want you to be able to talk, communicate, and do whatever you want to do, and make yourself
01:32better as a player, but also as a person, because this game is going to end.
01:37That's right.
01:38Yeah, and you never know when that time...
01:40That's right.
01:41Right.
01:42That's right.
01:43New hitting approach this year with the team.
01:46Your thoughts on that?
01:47I ain't have the meeting yet to get too much into that, but we hit this offseason together.
01:53It was good.
01:55You know, didn't change nothing.
01:58Working on little bitty stuff that could help me out as far as my game plan, but nothing
02:05physically or mechanically in my swing.
02:07So that was a positive note when, obviously, new hitting guy coming in, and just letting
02:16you know that you're on the right track puts you in a positive spot.
02:19It feels good.
02:20Yeah, for sure.
02:21It's 10 below back in Minnesota right now.
02:23I know.
02:24I don't even know.
02:25That's crazy.
02:26I was there at Twins Fest, and it was colder than Georgia, than Minnesota at that time,
02:34because we had just got snow.
02:35And then probably the last...
02:36You just said...
02:37How many days has it been snowing in Minnesota?
02:38About two, three weeks.
02:39Probably the last two, three weeks, it's been like 75 in Georgia.
02:40So it's been like a couple of weeks.
02:41We did it right.
02:42We did it right being here this week.
02:43I'll tell you that much.
02:44You did.
02:45You did.
02:46It's definitely the best time to be down here with the Twins in Fort Myers.
02:47Your style, by the way, I think you've won the locker room today, which hurts Dustin,
02:48for sure.
02:49I'm just normal.
02:50Just casual.
02:51Looks good, man.
02:52It's my little pajama suit now.
02:53We're excited for you.
02:54Glad to get back at it.
02:55Good to see you.