Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tommy Edman, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Derrick Tuskan)
Versatility, speed and a flashy glove have always been part of Tommy Edman’s game. But for much of his career, so too have injuries.
The former Gold Glove-winning utility man for the Los Angeles Dodgers recently returned to the lineup after another stint on the injured list delayed his start to the season. A sprained ankle suffered in 2024, while he was rehabbing a wrist injury, has continued to cause issues over the past few seasons, and he underwent surgery for it last offseason.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports & faith connect
Since returning, he’s batting .395 (15-for-38) and has already been used in the outfield, at second and third base, and even as a designated hitter. The switch-hitting 31-year-old Californian provides valuable flexibility for manager Dave Roberts.
He can also provide occasional power, as he showed with a three-run home run in Tuesday’s 9-3 win over the Athletics — one of his team-leading four hits on the night.
Tommy for three! pic.twitter.com/orNcYPsir7
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 1, 2026
Edman enjoyed five seasons with the Cardinals (2019-23), who drafted him in the sixth round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of Stanford, winning a Gold Glove Award in 2021. He was then sent to the Dodgers at the trade deadline in 2024, and caught fire during the second half of the season and playoffs. He was named the 2024 National League Championship Series MVP while helping Los Angeles reach the World Series, where the franchise won the first of back-to-back championships.
The Dodgers have a commanding lead in the NL West again this season and are hoping Edman’s return aids in their quest to win a third straight World Series. Meanwhile, after the surgery and recovery, Edman is hoping his ankle woes are finally behind him.
“It’s obviously something I’ve dealt with the past two years, so getting the surgery was a tough decision because I knew I was going to be out for a little bit,” he told reporters last month. “But after speaking with the doctor, we determined it was going to have a high probability of getting back to 100%, I decided to go through with it.
“It’s feeling great now. It took maybe a little bit longer than I expected, but I’m back to feeling normal again.”
Feeling normal hasn’t been as consistent as he’d like. There was a stretch at the beginning of the 2025 season where he “felt pretty good,” until he sprained the ankle again at the end of April. He plans to wear a brace on it indefinitely.
The most challenging part of the injury and recovery process has been patience.
“With surgery, a lot of times it’s not a super linear progression,” Edman told the group of reporters. “So just having some ups and downs and just having the faith that it was going to get back to 100% eventually and just having the patience to let the whole process play out.”
He spoke about that faith while wearing a shirt that read, “Jesus Over Baseball.”
Edman’s journey of faith in Christ began as a younger baseball player, when he had faith in God but felt it get crowded out has he prioritized his sport.
“I saw these people who I aspired to be like, and I realized that the one commonality that they had was that their eyes were fully set on God,” Edman said in an “I Once Was” video produced by Sports Spectrum. “I realized that something needed to change if I wanted to live up to my full potential that God had in store for me.”
One of the turning points in his life was being drafted by St. Louis, which put him in a clubhouse with other believers like Adam Wainwright and Paul Goldschmidt. Edman admired their on-field success, but more so how they represented God.
Another turning point came in 2024. Edman had wrist surgery prior to that season, and when he finally started to feel close to returning to the field, he sprained his ankle.
It appeared as though 2024 would be a wash, and the Cardinals opted to trade him at the deadline to the Dodgers. He eventually made it back, strengthening L.A.’s lineup on its run to the World Series.
“I feel like it’s almost because of those injuries that I ended up getting traded to the Dodgers,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2024. “Fortunately, that led to a great postseason and us winning the championship. So now looking back on that, I can kind of see what God’s plan was all along. It seemed very frustrating at the time, but it led to even greater plans than I could’ve imagined.”
Edman experienced another turning point of a very different sort in 2024, when his son, Eli, was born. Edman was already maturing as a follower of Christ, and becoming a father helped him understand God’s love in a more profound way.
“I want the best for my son. I want all the best things in the world for him,” he said on the podcast. “So understanding that God wants the same for us, it kind of makes it a little easier to contextualize and understand that even though we may not be going through the best things right now, like an injury or something like that, in the end, God wants the best for us.”
He continued later, saying, “It can be easy in baseball to look ahead to what’s to come, whether that’s free agency or even just playoffs, World Series, that kind of thing. But we have a special chance every single day when we walk into the locker room to make an impact on one of your teammates.”
“We have a special chance every single day when you walk into the locker room to make an impact on one of your teammates.”
Dodgers NLCS MVP and World Series champion Tommy Edman on the latest Sports Spectrum podcast pic.twitter.com/2sdkIFLiYN
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) December 25, 2024
With his faith-filled approach, Edman and the Dodgers (56-30) will go for a sweep of the A’s (40-46) on Wednesday in their three-game road series. First pitch is set for 9:40 p.m. ET.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him.
RELATED STORIES:
— SS PODCAST: NLCS MVP & World Series champion Tommy Edman
— ‘Servant of Jesus’ Tommy Edman leads Dodgers to World Series
— WATCH: ‘I ONCE WAS’ – MLB Shortstop Tommy Edman
— Faith-focused Dodgers manager Dave Roberts signs extension
— Padres closer Mason Miller knows ‘Jesus won the battle’
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sportsspectrum.com ’
