An interview with LA’s team physician, a couple of spring training previews, forecasting future Hall of Fame classes, and a new high for annual MLB revenue.
While noticing that old friend Jesse Chavez — Fontana’s own and Riverside City College’s finest — is back for a potential 18th major league season by signing a minor league deal with the Rangers, here are some Dodgers stories for your Tuesday morning.
Jack Harris at the Los Angeles Times talked with Dr. Neal ElAttrache about injuries in baseball, and improvements in the recovery process over the years. Within the article was the amazing fact that both MVP and both Cy Young Award winners in 2024 — Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Chris Sale, and Tarik Skubal — all previously had major surgeries performed by ElAttrache.
From Harris:
“All four of those were major surgeries,” ElAttrache said last weekend in an interview with The Times. “And what they go through to have this, the psychological and physical toll that they go through, it’s almost a year of recovery until they feel like themselves again. It’s really amazing that these guys are able to do it.”
Links
Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register has been rolling out his spring training previews, and on Monday he took a gander at the Dodgers’ outfielders.
After the Dodgers announced their list of non-roster invitees to spring training last week, Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic took a look at the two dozen players and organized the group into tiers.
Maury Brown at Forbes reported that Major League Baseball had revenue of $12.1 billion, a record high for the sport.
In the aftermath of last week’s Hall of Fame election announcements, Cooperstown expert Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs on Monday looked ahead to who might be elected on the next five writers’ ballots. Among the former Dodgers projected for induction by Jaffe are Andruw Jones in 2027 in his final year on the ballot, Albert Pujols in 2028 and Zack Greinke in 2029 in their first years on the ballot, and Chase Utley in 2030.