Dodgers reveal timeline after Tommy Edman surgery fans saw coming

It seems like the Dodgers always need at least one guy playing through an injury during a postseason run to make it a real Dodgers postseason run. Last year, of course, it was Freddie Freeman; this year it was Will Smith and Tommy Edman.

Both pushed through, and Smith did it in a big way, calling every contest of the World Series and both of Yoshinobu Yamamoto's complete games, along with hitting a key two-run single in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Phillies and the go-ahead blast in Game 7. Edman, nursing an ankle injury, was quieter throughout the month but was in every starting lineup and even spent a few innings in center field despite not being able to run well.

The ankle is an issue that Edman's dealt with on-and-off since last year, and he spent two separate stints on the IL in May and August because of it. During the Dodgers' postseason run, he seemed open to possibility of undergoing a surgery to put it to bed.

On Tuesday, the first night of GM Meetings, Brandon Gomes confirmed that Edman would be doing just that, but he's still expected to be ready to go by spring training.

Tommy Edman will undergo ankle surgery, but Dodgers expect him to be ready in March

One of the first major moves of the Dodgers' 2024-2025 offseason was extending Edman on a five-year, $74 million contract, but he disappointed in his first full year under the new deal. Despite a torrid start, when he hit five homers in the first nine games of the season, he slowly petered out and put up one of the worst offensive seasons of his career: a .225 average and .656 OPS.

It's likely that the ankle issue held him back quite a bit at the plate (his defense remained elite, at least), but it wasn't what the Dodgers wanted from a player they'd coveted for years before finally pulling off a trade for him with the Cardinals at the 2024 deadline.

Hopefully the ankle surgery will get him back to his old ways in 2026. Even if Tommy Tanks never fully reemerges, we still need to see more of the reliable contact hitter that the Dodgers thought they were getting.