SEATTLE -- Byron Buxton had hoped to avoid the injured list due to the recurrence of his right hip impingement, but the discomfort lingered to the point he did not feel he had a choice.
Buxton, who is traveling with the Twins on their current road trip despite not being eligible to be activated until at least Aug. 8, explained Friday that he felt good when he was activated from his first IL stint of the year on July 20. But over the course of the Twins’ last homestand, the condition worsened to the point that he needed to be sidelined again.
Buxton received an injection and hopes that this time, he’ll knock out the condition for the remainder of the year.
“It was gradual,” he said. “I felt good coming off the road trip and just over time, I got a little tight. I thought I could get rid of it. Had the off-day coming up. 'All right, we've got the off-day. I can get rid of it.' It wasn't anything like that. It's one of those, ‘Don't put us in a bad situation going forward.’ Just the best time to get it done and see what we can do to get it under control.”
The Twins initially placed Buxton -- who has dealt with lingering hip issues dating back to May -- on the IL over the All-Star break with the hope that that move would be sufficient to get him past the injury. He said he felt good when he came back from that stretch, and that he does not believe that lengthening it would have prevented the recurrence.
“I don't think it would have mattered,” he said. “Came back in Cleveland, I felt real good. Running felt fine and then you could take the flight. Fly back to Minnesota. I was like 'It's a little tight today.' Next day I was a little bit tighter. It never loosened up for me. Kind of figured then it was probably something more than a couple days off.”