We investigate the critical behavior of the two-dimensional spin-1 Baxter-Wu model in the presence of a crystal-field coupling Δ with the goal of determining the universality class of transitions along the second-order part of the transition line as one approaches the putative location of the multicritical point. We employ extensive Monte Carlo simulations using two different methodologies: (i) a study of the zeros of the energy probability distribution, closely related to the Fisher zeros of the partition function, and (ii) the well-established multicanonical approach employed to study the probability distribution of the crystal-field energy. A detailed finite-size scaling analysis in the regime of second-order phase transitions in the (Δ,T) phase diagram supports previous claims that the transition belongs to the universality class of the four-state Potts model. For positive values of Δ, we observe the presence of strong finite-size effects, indicative of crossover effects due to the proximity of the first-order part of the transition line. Finally, we demonstrate how a combination of cluster and heat-bath updates allows one to equilibrate larger systems, and we demonstrate the potential of this approach for resolving the ambiguities observed in the regime of Δ≳0.