UPDATED November 5, 2017 at 2:55 pm PT

(See below)

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The year was 2004. It was a great year for the Dodgers, who ended up winning the National League West Division over the San Francisco Giants by a mere two games. But for Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley, 2004 was a disaster … one of his own doing.

During a game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on September 28, 2004, the then 26-year-old Dodgers outfielder let his anger management issues get the best of him when he threw a water bottle into the stands at Dodger Stadium at a heckling fan. As a result, the hot-headed Harbor City, California native was suspended by Major League Baseball for the remainder of the 2004 season.

“From the bottom of my heart, I apologize for my outburst,” Bradley would later tell reporters, in a statement that had clearly been prepared by someone else. “Getting upset has caused me to hurt family, hurt friends, hurt my team, hurt fans. I need to talk to somebody about anger, get treated, find a way to correct that situation. It’s not even about baseball. This is about what I need to do for my life. I let anger get the best of me.”

Bradley would return to the Dodgers in 2005 but appeared in only 75 games due to a variety of injuries, and on December 13, 2005, newly hired Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti (thankfully) traded the beleaguered outfielder to the Oakland Athletics along with utility infielder Antonio Perez for a then unknown 24-year-old minor league outfielder named Andre Ethier.

For those unfamiliar with where Ethier had come from, he was selected by the A’s in the second round of the 2003 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Arizona State University – the alma mater of former Dodgers outfielder and flag-saving legend Rick Monday, among others. And though the 6′-2″ / 210-pound left-handed hitting and throwing outfielder began the 2006 season with the then Dodgers Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas 51’s, he impressed Colletti enough to earn a call-up to the Dodgers on May 2, 2006. One day later, on May 3, 2006, the Phoenix, Arizona native hit the first of what would be 162 home runs in his 12 seasons in a Dodgers uniform.

The former Sun Devil finished his rookie season with an outstanding slash-line of .308 / .365 / .477 for an OPS of .842 – good enough to finish fifth in the 2006 National League Rookie of the Year voting. Ironically, that prestigious honor went to Ethier’s eventual teammate Hanley Ramirez, then of the Florida Marlins. Ethier also finished sixth in the 2009 NL MVP voting, when he also won a Silver Slugger award. He was named to the National League All-Star teams in 2010 and 2011 and also won a Gold Glove in 2011. Simply put, although not a Hall of Fame-caliber player, Ethier has had a very solid and successful 12-year MLB career, all will the Dodgers; something that is virtually unheard of these days.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the extremely popular Dodgers outfielder has dealt with a series of freak and very serious injuries over the past two seasons, most notably a fractured right tibia that he suffered (literally) when he fouled a ball off his right shin during a spring training game on March 22, 2016. That injury caused Ethier to miss all but the final 16 games of the 2016 regular season and eight postseason games.

Although no one knew it at the time, Ethier would miss nearly the entire 2016 season after fouling a ball off of his right shin during a spring training game. (Video capture courtesy of MLB.com)

And then during spring training 2017, a now 35-year-old Ethier suffered a herniated disc in his lower back that caused him to miss all but the final 22 games of the 2017 regular season and eight postseason games.

“It feels like it’s Groundhog Day all over again,” Ethier said, after being shut down in spring training 2017. “I’ve been stuck in spring training for 18 months now. That kind of hit me when I was sitting at home yesterday.”

If there is a silver lining to all of this it’s that the veteran Dodgers outfielder slugged a solo home run in game-3 of the 2017 National League Championship Series against the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on October 17. He also drove in the Dodgers lone run in game-7 of the just-concluded 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros in the Dodgers brutally painful season-ending 5-1 loss at Dodger Stadium, so there’s that.

Unless Ethier is willing to accept an enormous pay cut in 2018, it appears that game-7 of the 2017 World Series was his final game in a Dodgers uniform. (Photo credit – Keith Birmingham)

All of this being said, it is unlikely that the Dodgers will pick up Ethier’s $17.5 million club option for 2018 and will instead pay him a $2.5 million buyout of his contract. If this is indeed the case, then Ethier’s sixth-inning pinch-hit single off of Astros right-hander Charlie Morton to Astros right fielder and eventual 2017 World Series MVP George Springer to drive in Joc Pederson from second base will have been his final at-bat, hit and run batted in as a Dodger. And when you think about it, that’s a pretty cool way for the man affectionately dubbed ‘Captain Clutch’ to finish his 12 seasons with the Dodgers.

Godspeed to you, Dre.

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UPDATED November 5, 2017 at 2:55 pm PT:

The Dodgers have indeed declined to pick up their $17.5 million club option for Andre Ethier for the 2018 season and have instead bought out the final year of his 5 year / $85 million contract for $2.5 million, thus making him a free agent.