Notes, quotes and comment

Byron Buxton had surgery Thursday on his fractured finger, He's expected to be ready for spring training, and we can only hope that a new calendar year will be kinder to the young man and his career than 2014 has been.

I no longer expect Buxton to head the offseason Top 100 (or 50, or whatever) prospect lists. The injuries that wrecked this year for him ought not be long-term (although the concussion may have ramifications we can't know today), but the year of development is gone forever. He's never going to be 20 again.

Point is, he -- and Miguel Sano -- remain prime prospects, and that doesn't change if Kris Bryant is ranked above them on Baseball America's list. What matters is sharpening their skills and getting them into the major league lineup.

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Rick Renteria guided the Cubs to a 73-89 record.

The Chicago Cubs on Friday fired manager Rick Renteria for the sin of not being Joe Maddon, who they officially hired within hours.

There has been some consternation in the Twins blogosphere over whether the Twins made an effort to entice Maddon and if so how seriously they pursued him. I never really thought Maddon would see the Twins as a good fit.

Renteria might be another matter. He's 52, bilingual, and in his one season as Cubs manager he got the season's most important task done: He got Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo, the first two pieces of the team's rebuilding process, back on track. Their fades in 2013 got Dave Sveum axed.

The Cubs graduated several more pieces of the project to the big club late. Not all of them thrived immediately, but that can scarcely condemn Renteria as a manager for a club in transition -- which is what the Twins are, or should be, next year.

There was a national report linking Renteria to the Twins. Hiring him seems more plausible than hiring Maddon.