Injured Dodgers starter Josh Beckett is out for the season and needs surgery to fix a torn labrum and lesion in his hip. He has not decided whether to play next season, Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times tweets, but it sounds like retirement is a strong possibility. He “sounds like a man ready to walk away,” tweets Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.
Beckett is the final year of a four-year, $68MM extension that he signed with the Red Sox in 2010. The Dodgers acquired him and took on most of his salary in their huge 2012 trade that also brought Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.
Beckett has pitched well this season, posting a 2.88 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 while throwing a no-hitter in May. For the second consecutive season, though, he’s missed significant time due to injury, pitching 115 2/3 innings this year after throwing just 43 1/3 innings in 2013 while struggling with thoracic outlet syndrome.
Beckett got an early start to his big-league career, first appearing with the Marlins as a 21-year-old in 2001 and emerging as the MVP of the 2003 World Series at the tender age of 23, and he’s now pitched 2,051 career innings, posting a 3.88 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
