Hip pain keeps Byron Buxton out of Twins lineup

Byron Buxton was unavailable to play in Wednesday’s series finale against the Kansas City Royals, two days after he left a game with right hip discomfort, and the Twins are weighing whether to place him on the 10-day injured list.

Buxton underwent a magnetic resonance imaging exam that came back clean Tuesday, but he was still dealing with pain in his hip the next day.

“There was some good news on the MRI actually,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Symptomatically, though, I’d say he could feel better. There are still some things we have to line up and some decisions we have to make because we want to do what’s best for him and for the team looking forward — not just this week, or the next three, four or five days.”

Buxton felt some pain in his hip when he fouled a first-pitch sinker from Royals starter Brady Singer in his second at-bat Monday. He felt some discomfort again when he caught a ball in center in the fifth inning, then realized he needed to exit the game after it affected his swing when he struck out in his third at-bat.

“I just thought maybe it would loosen up throughout the game,” Buxton said. “I went back out, thought I was fine, and then coming into a fly ball, it felt a little weird then. I was like, you know what, that seems a little weird too, but not thinking too much of it.

“It was that last at-bat I took. I realized I couldn’t swing inside. I swung and the ball felt like it was on my hands. It was one of those where I was like you didn’t feel your backside. I wasn’t close on the other two pitches. It was more of a precautionary thing to try to get ahead of it, if it was anything, rather than fight through that and make that worse.”

Buxton missed the last month of the 2022 season because of a right hip strain, but he says his current injury “don’t feel nothing like that.”

Kyle Farmer laughed when he received the silent treatment after his first home run of the season Tuesday — “it was well deserved,” he said — and he’s hopeful he can break out of a season-long offensive rut after he had a stint on the injured list with a right shoulder strain.

“The shoulder feels a lot better than what it did,” Farmer said. “I was struggling to put my seatbelt on in the car. I tried to tough it out, but eventually my stubbornness got to me, and I decided to get the cortisone shot. It feels good. I’m happy that it finally happened.”

It’s been the worst offensive season of Farmer’s career, batting .191 in 141 at-bats this year, but Baldelli lauded Farmer’s clubhouse presence.

“There is no one in the clubhouse that I’ve had here at any point that has more ability to connect really well with people than him,” Baldelli said.

• The Twins have six starting pitchers on their active roster after they promoted Zebby Matthews and Louie Varland for their last two games, but there are no plans to maintain a six-man rotation, Baldelli said.