Phil Hughes kept his rib after surgery and may cover it with a 'precious metal'

When you think of the shiny, metallic awards lined up across a ballplayer's mantel, you probably think of World Series trophies and major awards. For Phil Hughes, owner of the record for the single-season strikeout-to-walk ratio in Major League history, as well as one of the finest Twitter accounts on the internet, his "major award" is more like this one: 

OK, maybe it won't be a leg lamp, but it will definitely be anatomical. That's because the Twins' hurler may have his rib bone plated in metal, following its removal during surgery due to thoracic outlet syndrome. (Note: That's a surgery to repair the nerves, veins or arteries in the passageway from the neck to the armpit, per Wikipedia. It is not a surgery to become a dinosaur. That is Jurassic outlet syndrome.)
As the right-hander told the New York Daily News: 
"I haven't decided what the next step is. I have a few ideas. Plating it with some sort of precious metal is one way to go. I'll figure out something to do with it before it corrodes."
To Hughes, it seems like having your bones plated in gold is a totally normal thing to do: