Byron Buxton Likely To Require Offseason Hip Surgery

The Byron Buxton injury has cast a long shadow over the Minnesota Twins’ late-season push. The three-time All-Star and former Platinum Glove center fielder has been sidelined for the past nine days with a right hip impingement, and while he is not ready to call it a season, he has acknowledged that offseason surgery is the most likely path forward.

Speaking to Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune, Buxton revealed that the hip trouble is not new. Pain has flared on and off for years, tracing back to a 2021 injured-list placement for a hip strain. A series of injections had managed the discomfort in recent seasons, but the body appears to be sending a different message now. “It’s probably had enough of the shots and treatments,” Buxton said.

This marks the sixth IL stint of Buxton’s career related to the troublesome hip, and the third since early July. The issue first surfaced this season on July 5 at Yankee Stadium, forcing an initial absence. He returned in late July, only to be placed back on the 10-day IL on two further occasions. The pattern has become depressingly familiar for a player whose immense talent has consistently been undermined by his inability to stay on the field.

The statistical collapse since that Bronx flare-up is stark. For the first three and a half months of the 2026 campaign, Buxton was producing at a borderline MVP level, slashing .271/.328/.525 with 25 home runs in just 335 plate appearances. Since the injury resurfaced, he has hit just .172/.274/.203 across 73 trips to the plate. The Byron Buxton injury has not merely removed him from the lineup; it has transformed one of the American League’s most dangerous hitters into a shell of himself when he has attempted to play through the discomfort.

Minnesota entered September with faint but genuine hopes of October baseball. The club sits six and a half games behind in the AL Central but just three and a half back of Cleveland for the final Wild Card berth. That gap is navigable in theory, yet the Twins have struggled mightily without their best player. They went 10–17 in August while Buxton battled through the hip trouble and eventually succumbed to another IL placement.

For now, Buxton intends to “keep fighting” as long as mathematical hope remains. The competitive instinct that has defined his career — despite every physical setback — continues to drive him. Yet there is an unavoidable tension between the desire to help the team and the risk of exacerbating an injury that now appears to require surgical intervention.

 The Byron Buxton injury has the three-time All-Star contemplating offseason surgery after his sixth IL stint of the season

With Buxton unavailable, the Twins have turned to Walker Jenkins to patrol center field. The former No. 5 overall pick was a consensus top-10 prospect across the sport at the time of his promotion and has started each of the past six games at the position. His introduction to the majors, however, has been modest. Jenkins is 3-for-20 with four walks, a double, and a home run — the latter coming off a position player — in his first taste of big-league action.

Six games is far too small a sample to draw conclusions about a rookie’s long-term prospects, and the unfairness of asking any first-year player to replicate the production of a multi-time All-Star who was pacing toward a 40-homer season is self-evident. Nevertheless, the absence of Buxton’s bat and glove has been palpable. The Twins simply do not have another player capable of replicating that combination of power, speed, and defensive excellence.

Buxton is in the fifth season of a seven-year, $100 million extension that runs through 2028. The deal carries a $15 million annual base salary but is loaded with performance incentives tied to plate appearances and MVP voting that could push the total considerably higher.

Despite the extensive missed time, he has accumulated roughly 15–16 wins above replacement since signing the contract, a testament to how productive he has been when healthy.

Trade speculation has surfaced at various points — both at last year’s deadline and during the offseason — but Buxton holds a full no-trade clause and has repeatedly stated that Minnesota has become home. The Georgia native appears committed to seeing out his contract with the organisation that drafted him.

There is no indication that an offseason procedure would threaten his availability for the 2027 campaign, assuming the season begins on schedule. Collective bargaining negotiations could, of course, alter that timeline. Whenever play resumes, Buxton is expected to return to a reconfigured outfield that may include Jenkins, Trevor Larnach, Luke Keaschall, Alan Roden, Austin Martin, and top prospect Emmanuel Rodriguez. Larnach, who nearly moved at the deadline, remains a potential trade chip this winter.

The Byron Buxton injury narrative is one Twins fans know all too well. At 32, he has never appeared in more than 140 games in a season and has reached the 100-game threshold just three times. The talent has never been in question. The durability has. As Minnesota clings to its playoff lifeline, the club can only hope its star finds a way back onto the field one more time this year — before the surgeon’s knife inevitably beckons.