Byron Buxton crushes Braves' trade dreams

Byron Buxton has already made it clear that he doesn't want to be traded.

He wants to play his entire career with the Minnesota Twins, which is certainly an admirable goal.

But for the past couple seasons, as the Twins have struggled, the thought has been raised, over and over: What about the Atlanta Braves?

Buxton is from Georgia, the thinking goes, so he must like the idea of playing for the Braves, right?

Well, maybe not any more than he would any other team.

Buxton pushed back on that logic in an interview before the All-Star Game.

"At the end of the day, Atlanta ain't home," Buxton said. "I'm five hours from Atlanta. People don't get that. I'm from the South. I'm closer to Savannah. I'm closer to Jacksonville than I am to Atlanta. That's not home."

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Buxton is actually from Baxley, Georgia, in the southeastern part of the state.

He played high school ball at Appling County High School before being the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft.

Injuries limited Buxton for much of his career, but he's always been one of the most talented players in the sport when healthy, and in recent years, he's been able to stay on the field more often to prove that.

Buxton clearly feels intense loyalty to the Twins for believing in him from the start and sticking by him even when it was bumpy.

Maybe they still end up trading him before his career is over. But if the Braves thought they had an inside path to Buxton, it appears that thinking would be wrong.

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