Byron Buxton promoted to starting center fielder in All-Star Game

Midgame Sunday, when Byron Buxton was patrolling the field for the Twins, the announcer at Target Field informed the gathered crowd that Buxton had ascended to starting center fielder in Tuesday's All-Star Game.

Buxton will take the place of Angels outfielder Mike Trout, who pulled out of the game after dealing with upper back spasms for most of this week.

"Very few of us, if any of us, get a chance to do something like that," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "That's about as good as it gets and about as great an honor as you're going to get."

Buxton packed up and headed out of the Twins clubhouse quickly after Sunday's 11-0 loss to the White Sox, ready to catch a flight to Los Angeles with fellow Twins All-Star Luis Arraez. Those two will have a shorter respite than the rest of their teammates, who are off for five days until restarting the season in Detroit on Saturday.

If one player could use as many days off as possible, it's Buxton. He's been playing through right knee tendinitis the first half of the season. And with the Twins' nine off days in July, Buxton's been able to continuously play more games instead of sitting out every week or so to rest his knee.

That's part of why Buxton decided against participating in Monday's home run derby, which he'd be a top contender in, so as not to overtax his knee. Baldelli said when Buxton first made the team as an American League reserve that he wasn't concerned about a couple All-Star innings worsening Buxton's condition. And that hasn't changed now that Buxton is a starter.

"I'm just focusing more on it being a real great time for him," Baldelli said. "Rarely does he ever get a chance to be kind of looked at. He doesn't like the attention, but we'll give him the attention."

Catcher Ryan Jeffers — sidelined for several weeks with a broken right thumb — joked with pitcher Kenta Maeda — on the tail end of his Tommy John recovery — that the two of them would be "September call-ups" when the Twins most need them for the playoffs push.

And there might be more to join them, some even sooner.

Top of the list is Miguel Sano, who is with Class AAA St. Paul as he rehabs from a surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee. While he hasn't played at the MLB level since April 30, he's been tearing it up in the minors. In five games with the Saints, he's batting .313 with two home runs.

But the first baseman has some competition for his roster spot, as several of the younger fill-ins are playing well. Baldelli said he needs to see more at-bats from Sano before he's ready to activate him, though Sano's rehab stint will expire during the upcoming Detroit series.

Trevor Larnach is the only other injured position player, and a team spokesman said the outfielder is on track with his rehab from a late-June surgery to repair a core muscle injury, which had a six-to-eight-week timeline. Updates on injured pitchers: