In the tunnels of Dodger Stadium, Josh Beckett gave a short interview Wednesday to share new developments of his stint on the Disabled List.
Beckett was moved to the DL with a groin strain in May, but he said he has not felt right all season long.
He knows he was ineffective, but was not feeling enough pain to suggest he had an injury. He had been experiencing numbness in fingers. As he started to throw, as part of his groin rehab, he noticed that numbness never went away.
Beckett spent some time in Dallas with Dr. Pearl and learned that a pinched nerve under his clavicle and above the first rib is causing the numbness. His recovery plan involves aggressive rehab to try and "open up" the region of the pinched nerve.
Worst case scenario would require surgery.
"Surgery is Plan F. You always try to avoid surgery if you can,” he said Wednesday. “For us, we’re going to try a lot of different things here in the next four weeks and kind of reassess things."
Beckett feels optimistic now that this has been diagnosed, and is "absolutely" confident that he will pitch again, even if that means he is out for the season.
In 2013, the starting pitcher was 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA and had given up eight home runs.
"What’s best for the organization is me being healthy and helping this team win next year, if I can’t do it this year," he said.
Beckett recognized that playing through the numbness definitely was not best for him or the Dodgers:
"I wasn't really helping anyone out by going three innings giving up five runs, bullpen is dead for three days, Kershaw has to throw 140 pitches his next start. That doesn't help anybody."
Chris Carpenter had a similar surgery, and Beckett has contacted him with questions. He also plans to reach out to Kenny Rodgers and Matt Harrison.
Beckett showed some frustrations about missing so much time, saying that he felt particularly bad that he could not be at the stadium Tuesday for the 9-7 victory and to witness the big game from Yasiel Puig.
Overall, he hopes to return as soon as his body will let him because he does not want to be a burden to the team.
"I don't want to walk around here in a ski mask and steal paychecks. That’s no fun. I want to help these guys win and be a part of that," he said.
So, now we sit and wait to see what comes to the Dodgers' starter.
Beckett is a free agent come 2015, and is earning $15.75 million per season in 2013 and 2014.
