Hip injury bothered Twins' Logan Morrison for months

Logan Morrison's disappointing 2018 season might be over, but he's still trying to squeeze in a little more baseball. So there he was Tuesday, wearing his Twins uniform, taking some swings in the batting cage and shagging fly balls.

It's all he can do for now, and he knows even that goes away next Monday. That's when orthopedic surgeon Dr. Chris Larson will shave down his left pelvic bone, sew up the hip labrum and search for evidence of a microfracture that would help explain the persistent pain that has nagged him since May.

"It's a serious surgery, but we don't know yet how serious," Morrison said. "A microfracture would complicate it."

The hip injury has already complicated, and perhaps ended, his Twins career. Morrison batted only .186 in 95 games in Minnesota, and though he hit 15 homers, that will go down as the lowest average in Twins history by a player with more than 350 plate appearances. After paying him $5.5 million this year, the Twins are unlikely to pick up his $8 million option for 2019.

Morrison admits the hip has bugged him for months and wishes he would have addressed it sooner. "It would have been definitely better to do it earlier. But it would have kept me out for four months," he said. "It's just not getting any better. If you've been grinding through it for three months and it doesn't get better, it's just time to do something so it can stop bothering me and we don't have to worry about it. And it's still early enough where I can have the surgery and have a somewhat normal offseason."

This hasn't been a normal season for him, but Morrison makes no claims it would have been different with better health. "I'm not making excuses," Morrison said. "I haven't performed the way I want to perform and know that I can. That's it."

Byron Buxton must have been anxious to return to action. Activated from the disabled list at Class AAA Rochester on Tuesday, Buxton homered, singled twice and drove in four runs during the Red Wings' 8-0 victory at Columbus.

Buxton has been bothered by a strained left wrist for a month, returning for only three days before reinjuring it. He proved in batting practice last week the wrist has healed, though the Twins might limit his playing time for awhile.

"We're going to probably not rush him in there, as far as playing every day," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "Maybe every other day, at least until the end of the week, and then start trying to increase if the health holds up."

• Robbie Grossman went through a full workout in the outfield, at the plate and on the bases, and "the progress has been steady since he went down with the hamstring injury," Molitor said. The Twins have discussed activating him by Thursday, but they also might send him to Rochester for a couple of rehab games, Molitor said.

• Lefthander Adelberto Mejia underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test on his left arm, but doctors aren't certain yet what is causing the nerve problem that landed him on the disabled list.

• Molitor shuffled his outfield lineup, moving Max Kepler into center field and bumping Jake Cave to left with Eddie Rosario in right. The reason, Molitor said, was to keep all the outfielders comfortable at each position, just in case. Cave had not played a corner position since late June.

• Joe West was behind the plate, the 5,163rd game of a major league umpiring career that began in 1976. That ties him with Bruce Froemming for second-most games umpired in MLB history, behind only Hall of Famer Bill Klem, who officiated 5,369 from 1905-41.

• Umpiring first base was Doug Eddings, and he'll have the plate for Jose Berrios' start Wednesday. After Eddings worked Berrios' start in Boston on July 29, Morrison accused him of being overly argumentative and having a "how dare you question my authority" attitude.