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KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 All-Star slugger Byron Buxton sounded like someone who wouldn\u2019t happily accept another lengthy roster rebuild \u2014 if that\u2019s the direction and pace the Minnesota Twins take.<\/p>\n
All-star right-hander Joe Ryan criticized Twins leadership for positioning the team to fail the past two seasons by not re-signing free-agent right-hander Sonny Gray.<\/p>\n Two of the Twins biggest stars, both of whom are having their best individual seasons amid a 63-80 start, expressed displeasure about the team\u2019s recent direction, along with a lack of certainty about what comes next.<\/p>\n As Buxton nears age 32 with three years to go on his $100 million contract, the idea of another deep rebuild is unappealing, especially if it takes more than, say, one offseason. Questions about ownership\u2019s long- and short-term plans, and how they relate to improving the active roster, make Buxton wonder.<\/p>\n If the Pohlad family directs team president Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll to make moves that aren\u2019t aimed at immediately improving the club\u2019s won-loss record next season, Buxton likely won\u2019t be happy about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t treading water,\u201d Buxton told the Pioneer Press. \u201cI won\u2019t do that. It\u2019s all about winning for me. I ain\u2019t a person who\u2019s going to be walking on my toes or anything like that to satisfy anybody. I want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan pointedly said the quiet part out loud, criticizing the team\u2019s financially motivated decision in late 2023 to not re-sign Gray, a failure he believes reverberates to the present. After the Twins showed no obvious intention to pursue him, Gray instead signed for three years and $75 million with the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, they didn\u2019t offer him a contract, but having (Gray) on the team would have given us another postseason back-to-back, which would have been pretty special for the city,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone knows it\u2019s not crazy to say that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Twins fell out of contention a year ago after Ryan sustained a season-ending shoulder-muscle injury in August. They started floundering this season around the time right-hander Pablo L\u00f3pez missed three months beginning in June because of a similar injury. It stands to reason that having Gray still in the rotation would have softened those blows. He remains an above-average pitcher, making 56 starts the past two seasons combined and ranking 12th in WAR at Fangraphs.<\/p>\n With the Twins in \u201923, Gray made the American League All-Star team and finished second in AL Cy Young voting, leading a rotation that included Ryan and L\u00f3pez. The trio helped the Twins take the AL Central, break an 18-game postseason losing streak and win a playoff series for the first time since 2002.<\/p>\n As much as he liked having Gray around, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli dismissed the kind of hypothetical assertion entertained by Ryan.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think (that\u2019s) productive,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s kind of pessimistic, after-the-fact thinking. Talking about all of the transactional what-ifs that we could have done is not for me and will never be for me.\u201d<\/p>\n There was nothing special about the timing of Ryan\u2019s complaint, Ryan said, when he told the Minnesota Star Tribune in a report published Saturday that the Gray decision was \u201cthe biggest mistake we have made since I\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan lodged his grievance coincidentally before tying the shortest outing of his career in a lopsided loss to the Royals on Saturday night. Ryan, who has been taking antibiotics to fight an unspecified infection, allowed five runs in the first inning and made it through just two innings.<\/p>\n Ryan didn\u2019t waver about his feelings in a follow-up after his sickly outing.<\/p>\n \u201cHindsight is always 20\/20,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cEveryone in the clubhouse loved (Gray). I don\u2019t think it was like we were going into spring training and everyone was upset about it, but if you look at what happened last year and what could have happened with having him there, yeah, I do stand by that.\u201d<\/p>\n Buxton didn\u2019t come out and agree with Ryan about Gray but conceded, \u201cWe\u2019ll never know because we didn\u2019t make the move.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the biggest mistake, but I do know that I\u2019ve been here for long enough, so I\u2019ve seen a lot of things,\u201d Buxton added. \u201cIf this is what you call a rebuild, this will be my third one since I\u2019ve been here. So, if you want to talk about mistakes, I saw a lot of mistakes leading up to now.\u201d<\/p>\n Buxton didn\u2019t shy away from assigning responsibility for the team\u2019s collective failures the past two years to the players the Twins already had. The club had a 13-game winning streak in May but has gotten abysmal results otherwise. Hence, the big, 11-player dump at the deadline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t win very many games last month,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cHow many was it? Six, seven? Eleven? It\u2019s not enough. We had a chance to control our destiny last year, and as a team, we just didn\u2019t play well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n In most ways, the end of the 2025 season cannot come fast enough for the Twins, who started September poorly after enduring a lousy August, plus the stunning trade deadline. Ryan might have been traded along with the rest if the market for top starting pitchers had developed. Maybe it will in November.<\/p>\n Buxton, though, pointed to the past two offseasons for the front office \u2014 quiet in the additions column.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take,\u201d Buxton said, meaning trades and free-agent additions. \u201cNot many teams in baseball don\u2019t do something in the offseason anymore. Every team does something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Originally Published: