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Yasmani Grandal could face shoulder surgery next week

By Eric Stephen
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal played for over two months with inflammation and soreness in his left shoulder, and might require surgery as early as next week.

I wasn't in the postgame scrum with Grandal after the game but others were.

Per Zach Helfand and Dylan Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times:

"We are basically going to look it over," Grandal said. "We're doing pre-op on Tuesday and see how that goes. If the doc thinks we need to operate, then we'll do that Wednesday."

From Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register:

"Just a cleanup thing," he said. "I’m looking forward to not having to deal with this anymore."

Then again, Matt Kemp's shoulder surgery after the 2012 was a cleanup too.

Grandal injured his left shoulder during the Dodgers' road trip to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from Aug. 4-9, and after that road trip Grandal was 4-for-82 with a home run and 19 walks in 28 games to end his season.

He started three games during the NLDS, going 1-for-10 with six strikeouts and a walk. He had a two-run single in Game 3 in New York and a walk on Thursday night.

A switch-hitter, Grandal over the last few weeks said his left shoulder bothered him most while swinging left-handed, on the thrust and drive of the swing, sort of the opposite of Kemp, a right-hander, who was limited on the finish and follow-through of his swing by his left shoulder.

Grandal started both Greinke starts in the NLDS, and caught 28 of his 34 starts during the season.

"[Grandal] and Zack have worked really good. That's probably our main reasoning right there," manager Don Mattingly said before the game, on why Grandal was starting. "I think they're really comfortable. Zack's really comfortable, and that's kind of the main thing to today."

Grandal's season-ending slump brought his season line down from .289/.391/.498 on Aug. 9 to .234/.353/.403 on the season, still with a wOBA (.335) and wRC+ (115) that tied for third in the majors among catchers with at least 300 plate appearances.

But even with the shoulder-driven offensive decline, Grandal was still able to contribute on defense, as a receiver and pitch framer behind the plate, which is why he still started 26 of the final 50 regular season games and three of the five Dodgers playoff games.

Per Plunkett:

"I know offensively I wasn’t there," he said. "But I think on the catching said I did a lot of good things."

UPDATE: On Friday, Alanna Rizzo of SportsNet LA during exit interviews got another detail from Grandal:

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