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It was a beautiful Saturday night at Target Field. The Minnesota Twins were in extra innings with the Cleveland Guardians. In the bottom of the 10th, Gio Urshella cut into the lead with an RBI single to make it a 3-2 game. 

With the tying run on first and Emmanuel Clase on the mound, the Twins had a chance to tie or take the lead. But they were down to their final out.

Rocco Baldelli had a decision to make. He had given Byron Buxton the night off to manage his injuries, but the Twins needed a hero. By handing Buxton a bat, it would be like sending Superman into the phone booth, ready to save the day and send the crowd home happy.

With the game on the line, it would be logical to send Buxton out for one at-bat to try and pick up a victory. Instead, Buxton watched as Nick Gordon struck out to end the game.

"Today, Buck was down," Baldelli said via The Athletic's Aaron Gleeman. "He wasn't going to get in the game and get loose and fire up and get in the cage. It would take a while for him to get ready to go out there and we weren't going to use him today."

Giving Buxton the day off isn't an egregious act. Some of the best players in baseball get banged up and need time off, but this was one at-bat. The Twins had a chance to tie or win the game, why wouldn't you use a player that Baldelli called "the best in the world" earlier this season?

"It wasn't going to be an option," Baldelli explained. "Ultimately, we discussed that as a group, but ultimately I make that decision. When we make the decision before the game, we don't change what we're going to do when the game gets going."

The statement raises some eyebrows. Baseball is a game of adjustments. Managers spend time obsessing over what shifts to use to suppress hitters and which pitchers to use at the end of games. Instead of an adjustment, it seems like the Twins are being overly cautious with their superstar -- and for good reason.

So far this season, Buxton has played in just 64% of games. On Apr. 16, he injured his knee on a routine slide into second base. On May 7, he was pulled from a game with a hip strain. When Buxton returned to center field a few days later, the game was suspended and he was pulled from the remainder of the game that resumed the next day before serving as the designated hitter in the nightcap.

Buxton returned to the outfield in Friday's win over the Guardians but was mothballed when the game was on the line Saturday night.

The on-again, off-again usage of Buxton has been bizarre but it's understandable considering what he has done with his limited playing time.

Entering Sunday, Buxton ranks ninth among all hitters with 1.6 wins above replacement (WAR). His 10 home runs rank third. His 1.025 OPS would rank fourth and his .691 slugging percentage would rank second if he had enough at-bats to qualify.

At this point, he is as majestic as Bigfoot, but unfortunately for Twins fans, he is just as elusive.

This might be why the Twins have opted to deploy Buxton sparingly as opposed to a trip to the injured list. Minnesota's current injury situation could also play a factor as Carlos Correa, Trevor Larnach and Miguel Sano are all on the shelf.

Adding Buxton to that list could make staying atop the American League Central difficult, but it's one that has a long-term view in mind.

"Byron is as good of a baseball player as you’ll ever see,” Baldelli told USA Today's Gabe Lacques last month. “Anytime you have a guy like that, you want 162 games, you want 700 plate appearances. But what we want is for him to play at his best for the entire season and give us a chance to win a World Series. That’s our goal here."

There could also be some sentimental value at play. Baldelli had a promising career of his own, finishing third in MVP voting during the 2003 season. Injuries derailed that promising start, however, which left Baldelli in a similar spot that Buxton is now.

"I think Buck and I understand each other very well, I’d say," Baldelli said after Buxton broke his hand in June 2021. "We know where each other is coming from. I have great respect for him, and I think it’s mutual. And we are always having some sort of pretty meaningful conversations. And we’ve had to have some of those conversations over the last few years."

If Baldelli is making the decisions, which he suggested during his postgame comments, the Twins could be dealing with a larger issue. Perhaps the optics of putting a player that signed a seven-year, $100 million contract extension last offseason would elicit thoughts of Joe Mauer, but the Twins need Buxton on the field to succeed.

It's possible that 10 days off would do wonders and get Buxton back on track, but the Twins need to make that decision in order to move forward.