Byron Buxton headed to the disabled list

We knew that the Twins were heading for a roster crunch in the outfield. This is one way to handle it in the short term.

Twins place Byron Buxton on 15-day DL with a left thumb sprain. Suffered it on his stolen base attempt on Tuesday. Danny Santana recalled

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) June 26, 2015

There's a good chance that Buxton's thumb sprain played some part in his four-strikeout game versus Chris Sale earlier this week. No doubt Sale was dominating the Twins and Buxton regardless, but a sprained thumb is going to impair anyone's swing.

Santana, who has hit .308/.343/.492 in 15 games for the Rochester Red Wings, is on his way back to Minnesota. In Triple-A he spent most of his time at shortstop, but he did play one game in center field. His demotion came as a result of a .218/.235/.291 start with the Twins.

Aaron Hicks is starting his rehab stint in Triple-A today, so Santana could shift between shortstop and center field again as the Twins continue to work on playing time for Shane Robsinson and Eduardo Escobar. Let's hope that something has clicked for Danny, because Minnesota needs a hot bat.

Checking, and all signs point to this Buxton thumb injury being short-term. Should be just fine after this DL stint. #mntwins

— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) June 26, 2015

At least there's that. Get well soon, Byron.