Twins center fielder Byron Buxton ejected during rehab assignment

Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton is continuing to work his way back from injury but had his rehab game cut short Wednesday night due to an ejection.

It happened in the third inning of the St. Paul Saints’ game against the Iowa Cubs in the capital city.

With the count even at 1-1 and a runner on second with two outs, video shows Buxton appear to ask for time and step out of the batter’s box. About 17 seconds later, with Buxton still not in the box, the umpire charged him with a pitch clock violation, which cost him a strike and made the count 1-2.

Buxton took offense and appeared to say, “How you gonna start the clock like that when I’m not in the box?” as if he was granted time verbally but the clock was never paused.

He went on to strike out and then continued talking to home plate umpire Willie Traynor between innings, clearly frustrated. But after Saints manager Toby Gardenhire joined the chat, Traynor tossed Buxton, much to the center fielder’s surprise, as he had already started to walk away.

Buxton finished the game 0-2 with a pair of strikeouts after going 1-for-3 on Tuesday night. It’s unclear if his shortened night will delay his return to the Twins at all, but he was expected to return to the Twins as early as Friday, per MLB.com reporter Do-Hyoung Park .

He’s been out since Aug. 12 due to right hip inflammation.

For what it’s worth, Buxton has played in 760 MLB games over 10 seasons and hasn’t ever been ejected at the major-league level, so he definitely doesn’t have a track record of saying things that would get someone tossed.

The Twins sure could use his bat, too, as he was slugging over .700 in the month of August before he got hurt, with an OPS above 1.000 in both July and August. Over the past 30 days, the Twins as a whole have slugged just .407 with a .706 OPS, both in the bottom-half of the league.