They worked hard to get ready for the long grind of the season but on that spring morning in 2016, Brett Anderson would arrive at the Dodgers’ 141 acre home away from home not to deliver the ball from the mound to the plate, but to deliver bad news.
Anderson had a bulging disk in his back, he needed surgery and he would miss the next five months of baseball.
“It’s bad luck,” then general manager Farhan Zaidi said of the injury.
It was bad luck because Anderson just signed a qualifying offer worth $15.8 million and would not get a chance to play for it until 2016 was already nearing its regular season end.