FORT MYERS, Fla. — The wall of Byron Buxton’s gym at home in his native Baxley, Ga., received a new decoration this winter: the results of the 2025 American League Most Valuable Player voting. They show Buxton in 11th place, just two points away from what would have been his first top-10 finish.

Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton (25) stands at the plate after striking out to end the bottom of the third inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

It may not be the most aesthetically-pleasing décor, but it serves an important purpose for Buxton.

“I was pissed. I ain’t going to lie to you,” the Twins’ center fielder said. “You surprised yourself a little bit and thought you put yourself in a good position, and you didn’t. It’s fire.”

As Buxton prepares for his 12th major league season in a Twins uniform, he’s not shying away from the fact that the results of the voting weren’t the only thing he wasn’t particularly happy with this offseason. He also did not enjoy seeing his name in trade rumors following a season during which he had pledged his loyalty publicly to the organization that drafted him.

“If you know me and you know who I am, I don’t like my name being blasted around all the time,” Buxton said. “So this offseason for me was a little different — peaceful, but different.”

At the beginning of the offseason, the direction the Twins were going to take wasn’t fully yet known. Asked in September if he expected starters Pablo López and Joe Ryan to be on the roster in 2026, then-president of business and baseball operations Derek Falvey said it was his “hope” three times, but that it required some “ongoing conversations with ownership.”

It wasn’t until December that Twins officials started to publicly declare that they planned to hang onto Buxton, López and Ryan and build around them rather than continue to tear apart the club, putting trade speculation to rest.

That is something it seems as if Buxton would have liked to have heard earlier.

“All it takes is for somebody at the top to go to the media (and say) ‘We’re not trading you,’ ” Buxton said. “Trade rumors stop. Now, we don’t have those conversations. That’s how simple this could get. … It’s different. It’s different.”

Now, in camp, that’s behind Buxton and the Twins.

Buxton met up in November with new manager Derek Shelton in Jacksonville, Fla., about two hours from Baxley, and Shelton communicated to him that he was part of the team’s plans. New executive chair Tom Pohlad also paid him a visit.

The center fielder spent the offseason at home training, with some travel sprinkled in. A trip to Disney World was among the highlights. Buxton, who described himself as “not a rollercoaster person,” went on a Little Mermaid-themed ride with his youngest son, Baire, while the rest of the family hit up the more high-speed rides like TRON Lightcycle.

Right after he returned home from Orlando, Fla., he received a call from Mark DeRosa, the manager of the United States’ World Baseball Classic team. He jumped at the chance to join the team.

“To be able to have that opportunity, to be able to put that jersey on, finally, is something special,” he said.

To get himself ready for it, he said he started preparing probably a month earlier than normal. He’ll be gone for much of camp — the tournament runs from March 5-17 but teams congregate earlier to train together and play exhibition games. But when he returns, he will yet again be the heart and soul of the Twins’ roster.

“It’s very important to me that he is a Minnesota Twin. As important, it’s important to him,” Shelton said. “He said it publicly prior to me being here. He said it publicly after I got here. … We want him to be a Minnesota Twin. He made a commitment to the organization, and the organization made a commitment to him.”