/ STAFF WRITER
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Brandon McCarthy has certainly returned from injuries before. His career is pockmarked by those challenges – most prominently, serial shoulder woes including surgery that sidelined him for the 2010 season and a frightening skull fracture caused by a line drive back to the mound in 2012 that resulted in seizures and required medication months later.
But returning from Tommy John surgery was somehow different.
“Just a big bowl of weird soup, I guess,” the veteran right-hander said by way of assessing his 2016 experience.
Signed to a four-year, $48 million contract by the Dodgers before the 2015 season, McCarthy made only four starts before being diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow – an all-too-familiar diagnosis with one of sport’s most famous remedies.