{"id":499203,"date":"2026-02-25T19:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499203\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T19:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:39:11","slug":"cubs-tyler-austin-out-for-months-following-knee-procedure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499203\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs&#8217; Tyler Austin out for months following knee procedure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb 25, 2026, 02:25 PM ET<\/p>\n<p>MESA, Ariz. &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/32161\/tyler-austin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler Austin<\/a>&#8216;s return to the major leagues has been put on hold for what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/chc\/chicago-cubs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> manager Craig Counsell says will be months following a procedure on his right knee.<\/p>\n<p>Counsell said Wednesday that Austin had a patellar tendon debridement procedure on his right knee Tuesday and will need a lengthy recovery period.<\/p>\n<p>Austin, 34, signed a one-year deal with Chicago after spending six seasons with Yokohama in Japan&#8217;s Pacific League. He was competing for playing time at designated hitter and also can play first base and the outfield.<\/p>\n<p>Austin was selected by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/nyy\/new-york-yankees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Yankees<\/a> in the 2010 amateur draft and on Aug. 13, 2016, combined with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/33192\/aaron-judge\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aaron Judge<\/a> to become the first teammates to homer in their first major league at-bats in the same game.<\/p>\n<p>Austin also played for Minnesota, Seattle and Milwaukee. and has hit .219 with 33 homers in four seasons in the majors. He was part of the 2021 U.S. Olympic team.<\/p>\n<p>His injury could create an opening for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/33711\/michael-conforto\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Conforto<\/a> to earn a bench spot on the team after Conforto agreed to a minor league deal on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 25, 2026, 02:25 PM ET MESA, Ariz. &#8212; Tyler Austin&#8216;s return to the major leagues has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-499203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}