The A’s announced on Friday afternoon that young outfielder Lawrence Butler had undergone right patellar knee surgery, which was deemed a success:
The announcement of actual surgery comes as a bit of a surprise to A’s fans and is the worst possible outcome. We had heard from beat writer Martin Gallegos that Butler had been dealing with a patellar tendon strain and that surgery could be a possibility, but that didn’t seem like a high probability
since the 25-year-old managed to play in two of the final three games of the season. Alas, there was evidently an actual tear in his knee and surgery was required. And not only did he have surgery on his right knee, he also got a PRP injection for his left knee to treat chronic tendonitis. Anything with the word chronic in it should be concerning, and Butler will have two separate injuries to worry about rehabbing this offseason.
There is no timeline for Butler other than the vague “work through the offseason in preparation for Spring Training 2026”. That could mean anything, from being a full go when position players report, to missing the first few weeks of camp, to possibly even beginning next year on the IL. There have been baseball players who have suffered exact or similar injuries to give us an idea of a possible recovery time:
- Edwin Diaz: fully torn right patellar tendon in March 2023, missed entire season
- Triston Casas: ruptured patellar tendon in left knee in May 2025, missed rest of season
- Dustin Fowler: ruptured right patellar tendon end of June 2017, returned for spring training 2018
A’s fans will remember Fowler, one of the return pieces from New York in exchange for ace right-hander Sonny Gray. Fowler never looked the same after his injury and he would find his way out of the organization just a couple of years later. That’s about as worst-case of a scenario as possible.
On the bright side, it seems that Butler’s surgery was only for a partial tear so hopefully he’ll be on the earlier side of the recovery timeline, which seems to be roughly between 6-8 months for a full tear. He’s also getting the surgery out of the way early and not in the middle of the winter. Let’s hope our young outfielder takes care of his knees this offseason and is ready for a big season come spring.
