Still only one month into the 2015 regular season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been hit with an assortment of injuries.
Kenley Jansen and Hyun-Jin Ryu opened the season on the disabled list, where they both remain, and Los Angeles has since lost Carl Crawford, Brandon McCarthy and Yasiel Puig, among others, to the disabled list.
An MRI on McCarthy’s right elbow revealed he’d suffered a torn UCL, effectively ending his first season with the Dodgers. He said Monday a decision to have Tommy John surgery had not yet been made, but that’s now changed.
According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, McCarthy will have the ligament-procedure done on Thursday by team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache:
McCarthy will have Tommy John surgery Thursday.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) April 29, 2015
Dr. Neal ElAttrache will do McCarthy's surgery.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) April 29, 2015
McCarthy initially believed the elbow discomfort was similar to an issue he battled last season. Monday’s MRI of course proved to be a grim reality check for the 31 year old. Although McCarthy has a long history with injuries, he’s never suffered a serious elbow injury.
Of losing his four-year, $48 million investment after just four starts, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friemdan said this specific injury couldn’t have been predicted. “It’s one of those things that, Brandon obviously has had a little bit of an injury history, but nothing relating to the elbow,” he said Monday.
“This falls for me into the ‘this could happen to anyone’ category”. With McCarthy lost for the season and Ryu not yet ready to come off the DL, it reinforced Friedman’s belief in accumulating as much depth as possible.
“I guess it just goes to show this is what happens in this game with pitchers and you have to be prepared for it,” he said. “That’s why we talk so much about depth and you can never have enough.”
McCarthy went 3-0 with a 5.87 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 29 strikeouts over 23 innings pitched. He hopes to return near the 2016 All-Star break.
