Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images
On Tuesday, several sources, including Jeff Passan of ESPN, reported that Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger had undergone surgery to repair his right shoulder. The former National League MVP suffered a dislocation of his shoulder while celebrating his go-ahead home run in game seven of the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, pounding forearms with teammate Kiké Hernández in the Bash Brothers style made famous by Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.
According to Jorge Castillo’s report for the Los Angeles Times, the surgery was performed by Orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache. The recovery process will reportedly take 10 weeks, which lines Bellinger up to be healthy by the start of spring training.
In his post-game interview following the Dodgers’ NLCS victory, Bellinger told MLB Network it was not the first time he had dislocated his shoulder. During a 4-3 win against the San Diego Padres in May of 2019, Bellinger dislocated the same shoulder on a diving play at first base. The injury led the Dodgers to shy away from playing Bellinger in the infield, which he did just 16 times during the 2020 season.
Despite seeing a drop in production from where he set his marks during his MVP year in 2019, Bellinger played a pivotal role in the Dodgers’ title run in 2020. Bellinger will enter his age 25 season on the heels of slashing .239 with a .789 OPS in the Coronavirus-shortened 2020 campaign.
Arrick Joel has covered the Dodgers since 2017. Follow him on Twitter @ArrickJoel and follow @DodgersLowDown for more.