Remember when Dodgers left fielder David Peralta was hit by a pitch on his left inner elbow in the top of the second inning of the game against the Washington Nationals back on September 10 at Nationals Park? The one where former Dodger and current SportsNet LA broadcaster Orel Hershiser said an expletive on the air with Peralta in very obvious and significant pain, and for which the Valencia, Venezuela native had to come out of the game to have X-rays taken?

That HBP prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to say this after his team’s 7-3 win over the Nats:

“Right when I saw it, I saw seams on the elbow. Immediate swelling. From what I hear the swelling has dissipated. We’ll see if he’s in there tomorrow but he said he feels pretty good.”

As it turned out, the popular 10-year MLB veteran missed one game but was back in the Dodgers line-up against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium two days later, in which he drove in a run on a bases loaded ground out in the Dodgers 11-2 clobbering of their division rivals.

Lo and behold, Peralta himself posted on social media on Tuesday night (which was re-posted on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon by LA Times Dodgers beat writer Jack Harris) that he had successfully undergone surgery to his left inner arm, but not for what you think.

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Harris added this to his tweet:

“David Peralta had a flexor tendon repair on his left arm, per a source. The procedure was for an injury he’d been playing thru since around the All-Star break. Peralta is expected to be hitting & throwing again by March. The Gold Glove finalist is a free agent this winter.”

The irony here and as Harris noted, when the final out of Game-3 of the 2023 National League Division Series against the (ugh) World Series-bound Arizona Diamondbacks was recorded on October 11, Peralta, who turned 36 years old this past on August 14, became a free agent. And let’s be brutally honest here, there aren’t many teams looking to sign a 36-year-old outfielder with a career slashline of .279/.335/.450/.784 who is also on the mend from flexor tendon surgery – including the Dodgers.

Regardless, we wish the veteran outfielder a speedy and complete recovery from his surgery.

Play Ball!

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