Surgery looking likely for Buxton's right hip impingement

CHICAGO – Twins manager Derek Shelton acknowledged Friday that surgery is looking likely for Byron Buxton as the star outfielder looks to recover from a long, troublesome right hip impingement. But before that, Buxton still hopes to find a way to play for the Twins in 2026 if possible.

“Yeah, I think surgery is part of it,” Shelton said. “I think [general manager Jeremy Zoll] kind of mentioned that when we initially talked about it when Walker [Jenkins] came up. To be specific on what the surgery is, we can't until we get to that point. I'm not going to speculate on that. We see where he's at over the next week, the next few days, wherever he's at and see how it improves. And then when we have to make the determination on where he's at, then we'll do it from there.”

Buxton has dealt with hip issues off and on dating as far back as 2021. He didn’t experience any significant problems with the joint last year as he enjoyed his healthiest season in years, but it flared up on him in May of this season.

He continued to play at an extremely high level while managing the condition into July, but a recurrence sent him to the injured list over the All-Star break. Upon returning, Buxton has been unable to produce at the level he did in the first half, and this is his third IL stint of 2026 due to the injury.

The most recent IL stint officially began Aug. 30 after he suffered a recurrence on Aug. 25 in Sacramento. Buxton is with the team as they begin a six-game road trip to Chicago and Detroit, but he has not yet begun baseball activities.

“The difficulty is because you've got to work your way back into baseball activity,” Shelton said. “The other thing is, we only [have] 22 games left. There's a combination of things. The biggest component to this is the teammate that Buck is, and his want to get back. We owe it to him to be able to explore all those options before we go down a different route.”