Chad Billingsley injury: Dodgers RHP needs Tommy John surgery, out for year

Chad Billingsley met with team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Tuesday and the news was not good. The Dodgers' right-hander will need Tommy John surgery to repair the partially torn ligament in his right elbow. An MRI taken Saturday revealed an injury to the ligament.

Billingsley will have the surgery on Wednesday, and it will be performed by Dr. ElAttrache at the Kerlan Job Clinic in Los Angeles. Expected recovery time is usually 12 months.

Billingsley had increased tightness and pain in his right elbow in a bullpen session on Apr. 19, and he was scratched on Sunday in Baltimore and placed on the disabled list.

This procedure is exactly what Billingsley and the Dodgers tried to avoid last August and September when he received two injections of platelet-rich plasma into his right elbow rather than have surgery that would have knocked him out for all of 2013. He made it through weeks of rehab, then all of spring training without any elbow issues, and only missed time after bruising his right index finger in a bunting drill on Mar. 15.

Billingsley is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in two starts this season, with six strikeouts and five walks in 12 innings.