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Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Twins’ Byron Buxton upbeat after hip surgery
- Story byPioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
- Twins’ Byron Buxton upbeat after hip surgery
Byron Buxton was crutching around the Twins' clubhouse on Sunday, just over a week after having surgery on his right hip.
Buxton underwent a labral repair with decompression and a cam resection on his hip, which had landed him on the injured list three separate times this season. With the season ending Sunday, he will head back home to Georgia and rehab three to four times a week.
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Beyond that, the all-star center fielder is taking his recovery one day at a time.
"It's been good. I feel better," he said. "It's good to be able to feel a little bit better since then. I'm moving around a little bit. So, that's progress, for sure."
Buxton expects to be on crutches for a few more days. In the early days of his recovery, he said it hasn't been as painful as he had anticipated it might be.
While the hope is that Buxton will be ready for the start of next season, he hasn't yet asked when he might be hitting different milestones and when he can get back into baseball activities.
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"My biggest thing right now is, one, just being able to get back to walking," Buxton said. "When I start walking, I'll start going through the next steps."
Buxton, who was an all-star for the third time in his career this season, finished his year slashing .254/.319/.511 with a .829 OPS. He played in 93 games, falling short of hitting the 100-game mark for the third consecutive season. His last game came on Aug. 25, during which he tried to bend down to field a ball and aggravated the injury.
Although the Twins fell short of their goal of making the playoffs, and Buxton was unable to contribute as much as he would have liked, the center fielder projected hope for the future.
"The biggest thing now is the culture we built here throughout the year. I think it's a strong foundation that we done built now, to build off of for years to come," Buxton said. "It gave us that confidence and that resilience that we know we're a great team. We just fell a little short this year. But don't lose the sight of what we know we can do."
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Shelton speaks to group
Before the Twins took the field for the final time this season, manager Derek Shelton had a few points he wanted to share with his group.
First, he wanted to thank them. Second, being that it was the last time this specific group would be together, he wanted them to reflect on the relationships and culture they had built. And third, he wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what did and did not go well — and take that into the offseason.
"The goal is not to get to Game 162; the goal is to play beyond that," Shelton said. "I think the thing a lot of people need to realize is you get to the last portion of the year, you get tired, you feel the end. This should not be the end. I think it's very important to be able to talk about that and embrace that."
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Briefly
The Twins announced a crowd of 26,839 for their final home game of the season. Across 80 home games (the Twins played one game at the Field of Dreams movie site in Iowa), the Twins drew 1,733,203 fans to Target Field. That is a decrease from last season when they drew 1,768,728 fans across 81 games (21,836 fans per game to 21,665).
