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Byron Buxton's 2026 season ended with another injury. Buxton's incapacitation derailed the team's push toward the postseason, but the bigger concern for the Minnesota Twins might be what happens next. Buxton underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right hip last week, with the Twins announcing that the procedure included a labral repair, decompression and cam resection. Some of that is just to relieve the hip impingement he dealt with all year, but the labral repair is more involved—and more ominous.
Nobody should pretend to be a doctor when discussing a complicated hip surgery. However, previous MLB cases involving labral repairs suggest a recovery that can take roughly 6-8 months. That timeline raises a question: Why did the Twins wait as long as they did to make this decision?
Buxton's last game came on August 25 in Sacramento. His surgery didn't take place until September 18. That's nearly four weeks between Buxton's final game and the procedure. The Twins quasi-officially shut Buxton down for the season on September 11, but another week passed before the surgery actually happened. By that point, Minnesota's postseason chances had dwindled to virtually nothing, anyway...