Byron Buxton’s latest trip to the injured list has pushed the Twins into the same uncomfortable question they’ve faced before: how long can this hip problem be managed before surgery becomes the only real answer?
The All-Star center fielder was shut down again last week because of lingering hip impingement symptoms, a setback that fits a frustrating pattern for a player whose talent has never been in doubt. When Buxton is right, he looks every bit like an MVP-caliber star. But the road back has turned into a familiar grind, and this time it may be fair to wonder whether the season is effectively over for him.
Hip impingement is the kind of injury that can quietly wreck a baseball player’s day-to-day life. It comes from extra bone growth near the femur or the socket, or sometimes both, and that excess can limit movement while creating the kind of pinching pain that flares up when a player runs, twists, cuts, or slows down.
In baseball, that means just about everything. If the bone growth is severe enough, it can also irritate the labrum, the tissue ring inside the hip that helps keep the joint stable.
Because the labrum has very little blood flow, it does not heal especially well on its own. When the damage is significant, pain, inflammation, and instability can follow, and surgery may be required.
There are ways to try to get through it without going under the knife. Targeted rehab can help restore motion and strengthen the muscles around the joint so the hip itself takes less stress.
A steroid injection can also be used to calm swelling when that’s appropriate. But in Buxton’s case, those approaches have not solved the problem so far, and surgery to remove the extra bone and/or repair the labrum could be the next step.
That possibility matters because recovery timelines after hip surgery can stretch into a real unknown. Return-to-play timing depends on what exactly is repaired, and the research on position players coming back from labrum surgery is limited.
Still, the source notes that high-level baseball players have returned within 3-8 months after hip arthroscopy, including procedures for impingement and labral repair. Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll has already said surgery could be in play, which could leave the start of Buxton’s 2027 season hanging in the balance depending on when, or if, that decision is made.
For Buxton, it’s the latest reminder that injury recovery can feel Sisyphean: progress, optimism, a return to baseball activities, and then another setback. The source points out that there are no morals in injury, and no amount of wanting it can force orthopedic health. It’s a messy mix of variables, not a measure of toughness or ability.
Even so, the expectation is that Buxton will come back and produce at a high level again next summer. The problem is that Twins fans have been down this road enough times to know how exhausting the climb can be. And as the source puts it, it may be starting to feel cursed.
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