Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler to undergo surgery at the end of the season

Walker Buhler will not return to Dodgers this chapter.

The team announced, on Monday, that the bowler, who has been out since June with an elbow injury, will undergo surgery on his elbow at the end of the season next week.

The procedure will be performed by Neil al-Atrash.

Buehler experienced what the team called a tendon strain in his right elbow during the start Against the San Francisco Giants in June.

Buehler was off for six weeks — an unattached bony spur removed from his elbow during that time — and then began a throwing program late last month.

He was hoping to get back in some capacity for the extended run and post-season, targeting a late September comeback that might have given him at least a chance of getting out of the game in October.

However, those hopes have now been dashed with Monday’s news, dealing a devastating blow to the Dodgers less than two months before the playoffs begin.

“We took the opportunity to try to take a leave of absence, and start an advance to bring it back for this year,” Manager Dave Roberts He said. “Then as he was going through it, we couldn’t get past the hump. We shot him and now we have to get in [for surgery]. “

While the implications of Buehler’s injury are clear, Roberts’ interpretation of the exact issue on Monday was ambiguous.

Walker Buehler delivers against the Washington Nationals on May 24.

(Nick Wass/The Associated Press)

He said the right-handed had some discomfort in his elbow in which he played the capture last week, which prompted him to undergo an MRI.

The MRI results weren’t clear enough to pinpoint the exact problem, but with Buehler not actually progressing as the team had hoped, Roberts ElAatrache — the Dodgers’ team leader and one of the sport’s most prominent orthopedic surgeons — recommended surgery.

Whatever Dr. Al-Atrash saw, he felt that the best course of action was to go back, to have surgery, to find out what the problem really was. [and] Roberts said.

Roberts said he didn’t think Tommy John’s surgery – which Buehler underwent as a possibility – was a possibility.

Outside of that, though, the manager reiterated that the team didn’t have any more concrete information, including a possible timeline for how long Buehler’s recovery could take.

“I don’t know for how long,” Roberts said when asked how much Buehler is ready for the start of next season. “Just looking at the calendar, I’m sure it will have some effect [on next season]. But I am very hesitant to give a timetable.”

Roberts added, “I expect to get more information once they get into what the diagnosis is and what they did to repair any part of the elbow. But for now, that’s all we have.”

Entering the season, Buehler was expected to solidify the rotation.

The 28-year-old was walking out of his house Best Season as a Senior Player in 2021when he went 16-4 with a 2.47 ERA and finished fourth in the Cy Young award vote.

He earned the Dodgers Opening Day start title this year for the first time in his career.

He seemed to be taking over Clayton Kershaw It has held over the past decade and is expected to be a team working with world championship expectations.

But in the end, none of it paid off.

Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler walks off the field after resting in the third inning against the New York Mets on June 4.

(Alex Gallardo/The Associated Press)

Buehler was inconsistent during the first two months of the campaign with a 4.02 ERA in 12 starts, and was particularly struggling with the usually dominant fastball.

Then, during his June 10 start against the San Francisco Giants, he said something in his elbow that “stick” to him while on the hill, forcing him to leave his picnic early and take a test the next day.

That’s when Buehler was diagnosed with flexor tendon strain and then decided to undergo an arthroscopy to remove the bony spur he had been experiencing for several years, something that was not expected to affect his comeback schedule.

For the next two months, the Dodgers kept hoping Buehler would indeed be back in time for the playoffs.

That was part of the reason they kept quiet during the trade deadline.

They are still envisioning a possibility where the right hand can assist in their pursuit of the championship.

“I will do everything I can to come back and contribute as much as I can,” Poehler said last month, sounding upbeat.

Monday’s news killed those hopes for good.

“It’s definitely a hit,” Roberts said. “We’re better with Walker in our ball club. But there’s nothing we can do about it. I still think we’ve got enough guys to get through October to prevent running. But yeah, I mean, I wanted, we wanted Walker to be a part of this.”