Joey Loperfido Undergoes Hip Surgery; Won’t Be Ready For Spring Training

The Astros announced today that outfielder Joey Loperfido underwent arthroscopic surgery to address an impingement and labral injury in his right hip. A specific timeline for his recovery wasn’t provided but the team said his availability for spring training will be delayed. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com was among those to pass along the details. It’s an out-of-nowhere update. Loperfido was on the injured list early in 2026 but for a quad strain. Per today’s announcement, the hip issues were discovered shortly after the season ended, which led to this surgery. It puts Loperfido in an interesting spot heading into 2027. The Astros added him to their 40-man roster in April of 2024. He was shuttled between Triple-A and the majors for the next few months before being traded to the Blue Jays at that year’s deadline. He served a similar up-and-down role with Toronto through the end of the 2025 season. He was traded back to Houston ahead of the 2026 campaign for Jesús Sánchez. Once again, Loperfido was in an up-and-down depth role. Loperfido has now exhausted his three option seasons, meaning he will be out of options going into 2027. On the whole, his major league results have been passable but not outstanding. Between the Astros and Blue Jays, he has stepped to the plate 487 times over the past three years. His 6.4% walk rate and 31.6% strikeout rate are both a few ticks worse than average. His .240/.300/.378 batting line translates to a 92 wRC+. That means his offense has been just 8% below league average overall but that production has been buoyed by a .345 batting average on balls in play, which is more than 50 points north of the typical league baseline. Defensively, Loperfido has played all three outfield spots but has mostly been in left field. In 702 innings at that spot, he has been credited with eight Defensive Runs Saved, two Outs Above Average and has received a grade of two from Fielding Run Value. His numbers in center and right have been a bit below average. Houston’s outfield has been fairly wide open for years and that continues to be the case. Cam Smith is entrenched in right. Yordan Alvarez will play left field on occasion but will mostly be the designated hitter. Jake Meyers, Taylor Trammell, Lucas Spence, Brice Matthews, Zach Cole, Zach Dezenzo, Jorge Barrosa and Nelson Velázquez are on the roster but no one in that group is a lock for a regular role next year. Meyers and Trammell are eligible for arbitration and could be non-tendered. Barrosa was outrighted off the roster in September but was added back when Daulton Varsho got injured. Spence finished the season on a hot streak but has just 63 big league plate appearances with a 34.9% strikeout rate. Matthews, Dezenzo and Cole haven’t hit much in the majors yet. Velázquez is a short-side platoon bat. Loperfido doesn’t have big numbers at the plate in the majors but has done well in the minors. From 2024 to 2026, he had a 9.7% walk rate on the farm, a 23% strikeout rate, a .273/.359/.434 line and 112 wRC+. When combined with passable defense at all three spots, he could be a decent bench outfielder. He’s also cheap, having not yet qualified for arbitration. For a club with few answers on the grass and an aversion to the competitive balance tax, there’s appeal there. But he’s also 27 years old and still looking to truly break out in the big leagues. Since he’s going to be out of options, that puts pressure on his ability to stay on the roster. He won’t be healthy throughout the offseason, when there’s no injured list. Add it all up and his grip on a roster spot might be slipping. Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images