Dodgers notes: Tony Gonsolin, Mookie Betts, Clayton Kershaw

The Dodgers faced a major blow to their rotation when they placed Tony Gonsolin on the injured list two weeks ago, rendering him inactive for the remainder of the season. On Monday, the team announced that Gonsolin will undergo Tommy John surgery on Friday, and will likely miss the 2024 season as well.

Gonsolin on Tuesday explained how he pitched with a torn UCL for a span of two months, stating that he felt he had to “out of necessity” for a depleted rotation that saw Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urías land on the IL. J.P. Hoornstra of the Orange County Register writes about Gonsolin playing through injury and what the deciding factor was for Gonsolin to undergo surgery:

“I felt like I was just pitching out of necessity. I thought I could do it. I thought I had the capability to do it. It got to the point where the stuff just really wasn’t performing. Went through a lot of tough results, tough outings to get to that realization.”

Links

• The 2023 NL MVP race has been must-watch for baseball fans, as Mookie Betts and Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. are the clear frontrunners for the award. Levi Weaver and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic dive into the statistics that separate both contenders and how they’ve been able to impact their team in unique ways.
• Clayton Kershaw made history again this season, as he tied the late Hall of Famer Don Drysdale for the second most wins in team history. Ron Cervenka of Think Blue LA writes about Kershaw’s and manager Dave Roberts’ reactions to another milestone reached by the future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
• Lewis Abraham Leader of the Los Angeles Times writes about Juan Gomez, a Lahaina resident who saw his Italian restaurant filled with all sorts of Dodgers memorabilia crumble in the recent wildfires.

Per Gomez: “At this point, I don’t have a plan or a decision. I will just go with the flow. I feel calm. I feel blessed. We still have a roof. So many people don’t have anything to go back to. We just have to keep going with our lives. We have to rebuild or move on.”