Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Ugh. In a worst case scenario, Walker Buehler gave fans the news that indeed he will be undergoing a second Tommy John surgery in his young career. We knew that he would be out for the rest of the year. Now, it looks like it’ll be a whole lot longer.
The message on Buehler’s Instagram was short and sweet. “Tommy John Round 2. Let’s roll,” it read. “See ya when I see ya @dodgers.”
This is horrible news for the Dodgers. No other way to put it. Everyone was hoping that the surgery would be just a little clean-up job, and he’d rehab over the winter and be the same old Walker in Spring Training 2023. Now, we know, that ain’t gonna happen.
Recovery time for Tommy John surgery varies from athlete to athlete, but a rule of thumb is that it’s a year minimum. Dustin May, for example, was injured in May 2021 and finally took the mound last Saturday, capping off a 15-month journey back from the procedure. So the chances of seeing Buehler on the mound at Chavez Ravine in 2023 is remote at best.
This was already shaping up to be by far the worst season of Buehler’s still-young career. His stats lagged behind career norms, with a 4.04 ERA, 1.292 WHIP and career-low 8.0 strikeouts per nine innings. Buehler had been coming off the best regular-season performance of his career in 2021, a fourth-place Cy Young Award finish that saw him post a 2.47 ERA and 212 strikeouts in 207.2 innings.
This marks the second Tommy John surgery for Buehler. He had the procedure even before throwing a pitch for the Dodgers. After his senior year at Vanderbilt, Buehler had the operation, and had to rehab after being drafted by the Dodgers in 2015.
The Dodger ace was off the diamond for roughly the first 12 months of his career after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2015, not long after Los Angeles selected the Vanderbilt standout with 24th pick of the Draft. It wasn’t until September of 2017 that he finally made his Dodger debut, and his tenacity has been legendary ever since.
“I’ve told people the mental side of having surgery like that is probably tougher on you than the physical stuff … ” the 28-year-old Buehler said at the time. “It’s one of those things a lot of people end up having to go through, and I’m kind of glad I got mine done early and in the past and now I’m ready to get going.”
Well, Walker. Here we go again.
