Tony Gonsolin Undergoes Internal Brace Surgery

Tony Gonsolin underwent internal brace and flexor repair surgery today, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Friedman described the procedure as “a Tommy John revision with a flexor cleanup” but clarified that it was not a full Tommy John. Gonsolin will need approximately eight to 10 months to recover. The right-hander has been on the 60-day injured list since mid-June. With less than seven weeks to go in the regular season, it already seemed unlikely that Gonsolin would return, and today’s news confirms he will be out until 2026.

After undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023 and missing all of 2024 recovering, Gonsolin landed on the shelf again this past spring with a back injury. He finally made his return at the end of April and gave the Dodgers seven starts through early June, pitching to a 5.00 ERA. His 4.33 SIERA was better, but his walk rate (11.5%) and hard-hit rate (44.9%) were concerning. His velocity was back up to where it was in his strong 2022 season (2.14 ERA, 3.74 SIERA in 24 starts), but his results were a lot closer to his disappointing 2023 campaign (4.98 ERA, 5.05 SIERA in 20 starts).

The Dodgers would surely love to see Gonsolin rediscover what made him so successful from 2019-22. Over his first four MLB seasons, he pitched to a 2.51 ERA in 272 2/3 frames. Yet, his stuff was never all that intimidating, and his underlying metrics were never as impressive as his ERA. He posted a 4.04 SIERA in that same span, and the pitch modeling metrics Stuff+ and PitchingBot graded both his raw stuff and his command as below average. He also developed an injury-prone reputation even before his Tommy John, as he missed significant time with a ribcage injury, shoulder inflammation, a forearm strain, and a sprained ankle at various points from 2019-23. In other words, despite his former top-prospect status and early-career success, Gonsolin just might not be a true top-of-the-rotation arm.

So, while officially losing Gonsolin for the season hurts the Dodgers’ depth, and while they certainly could have used him at times over the past two months, it’s worth wondering if the team would have even had a place for him if he were able to return later this year. The Dodgers have suffered an enormous number of pitching injuries, but currently, their starting rotation is a six-man group featuring Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, and Emmet Sheehan. The only one of those six Gonsolin could have possibly replaced is Sheehan, but Sheehan has pitched quite well this season, with a 3.00 ERA and 4.01 SIERA in 30 innings entering play tonight. Rookie Roki Sasaki is also on his way back from a shoulder impingement that’s cost him much of the year. He’s hoping to return by early September, if not before (per MLB.com’s Sonja Chen).

Regardless, that’s a moot point now. Gonsolin will be out until next April at the earliest, and quite possibly a couple of months longer. He’ll be in his age-32 season by then, still having never had the chance to establish himself over a full, healthy MLB season. Suffice it to say, it’s anyone’s guess what the Dodgers can expect from him upon his return from the second major elbow surgery of his career.