Buxton to undergo season-ending knee surgery

MINNEAPOLIS -- Another season will officially come to a premature conclusion for Byron Buxton, as the center fielder is slated to undergo season-ending arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to clean up the joint that has caused lingering issues all year long, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey announced Friday.

The Twins were still finalizing details at the time of the announcement, but the current expectation is that the surgery will take place Tuesday. The recovery time is only expected to be a "few weeks," Falvey said, indicating the procedure will not impact Buxton's readiness for Spring Training.

If the Twins were still in serious contention for a playoff spot, things might have been different, and the club might have tried to get Buxton back on the field for a possible postseason push. But with the Twins 10 games back of the division-leading Guardians entering Friday with an elimination number of three, club leadership worked in consultation with Buxton, his agents and doctors to go ahead with the surgery.

"The more we talked about it with him trying to push through it, with having dealt with the knee and the hip a little bit that he's had as well, we felt like the best course here was not to try and rush him back," Falvey said. "We're running out of calendar here, and I think had we had days where we felt there were games to be played in a different way, we probably would have pushed him a little more or he would have wanted to push, quite frankly."

Buxton doesn't have any tears or acute injuries that necessitate surgical repair in the knee, Falvey said. Instead, the procedure will likely clear up some inflammation, scar tissue and fraying in the area that occurred as the result of the stress he put on the joint throughout the season.

"My guess is half the people in this room probably have some of that going on in their knees and elbows and other joints, so it’s really with that in mind, it’s to clear that out," Falvey said. "What ends up typically happening is the scar tissue and otherwise creates more of that inflammation when you pound on it, so now, let’s clear out some of that, and hopefully that will alleviate some of that stress going forward."

Buxton is currently on the injured list with a right hip strain, but it's believed that the hip issue is related to the knee that has been bothering him all season long. Though it originally flared up during an April 15 game in Boston, the Twins later noted that Buxton had been dealing with the knee troubles since Spring Training.

The Twins have had to carefully monitor Buxton's workload and pain tolerance all season long, giving him frequent days off and 35 games at designated hitter alongside the 57 he played in center field. Even with all of the pain, Buxton had been determined to avoid hitting the IL this year, and he made it until Aug. 23 before he was finally sidelined for good by his issues.

In the meantime, the Twins pushed all the way back to a share of first place in the American League Central by Sept. 4 while expressing hopes that Buxton could rejoin them before the end of the season. With the Twins all but eliminated, that's now unnecessary.

Buxton will finish his 2022 season with a .224/.306/.526 slash line, a career-high 28 home runs and 92 games played, his most since 2017 when he played 140. Because he'd stayed on the field throughout the first half, Buxton was able to put up the stats to earn his first career All-Star nod, and he took advantage by hitting the eventual game-winning home run off Dodgers right-hander Tony Gonsolin in the Midsummer Classic at Dodger Stadium.

In Buxton's first year after signing an incentive-laden, seven-year, $100 million contract extension to keep him in the Twin Cities through at least his age-34 season, he posted 4.0 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball-Reference, second on the team to only Carlos Correa.