FORT MYERS, FLA. – The Twins and Yankees were still playing in the midnight hour last July 24 at Target Field when New York center fielder Aaron Hicks hustled toward left-center, dived and extended his glove to take away what would have been a winning three-run double by Max Kepler in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The Yankees won 14-12 in 5 hours, 3 minutes, and media declarations that Hicks had made "the catch of the year'' still remain a Google away.
On Saturday, Twins center fielder Byron Buxton was answering a few questions from reporters, informal enough for him to be asked:
"That Hicks catch … you wouldn't have had to dive, right?''
Buxton smiled and said: "I don't know. It was a good catch. I'm not out there, so I can't really judge it. He went and got it.''
Two years ago, Buxton came to spring training after batting .309 with power in his final 47 games of the Twins' wild-card 2017 season. He had turned 24, and there was optimism he had been guided into a hitting approach that was going to work.
Exhibition games aren't a time to reach conclusions, but there was some flailing going on from Buxton in March 2018 that was familiar. This was followed by a lost, injury- and illness-plagued season that gave more strength to doubts over future excellence for Buxton.
He went home for the winter, got off the leg-kick, no-leg-kick merry-go-round and he stated this again Saturday:
