Was that a last chance to bid adieu to half the Dodgers?

So did you wave goodbye? Blow a few kisses, you know, just in case.

Bid a fond farewell to the nine Dodgers who can become free agents at the end of the season? The five Dodgers who are arbitration eligible and could be non-tendered? The two whom the Dodgers hold options on that they’re not expected to pick up?

That’s almost half of the 38 Dodgers currently in uniform or on the disabled list. Some will be back; some won’t. But which, and in what roles?

The free agent list: Aaron Miles, Jamey Carroll, Rod Barajas, Juan Rivera, Hiroki Kuroda, Vicente Padilla, Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo and Mike MacDougal.

The arbitration five: James Loney, Tony Gwynn Jr., Eugenio Velez, Blake Hawksworth and Dana Eveland.

The options not expected to be picked up: Casey Blake and Jon Garland.

That’s a lot of moving parts. For sure, several appeared on the field at Dodger Stadium for the last time Thursday in the Dodgers’ final home game of the season.

Surgery for Jonathan Broxton goes well, but now what?

And now what becomes of Jonathan Broxton?

Broxton underwent minor right elbow surgery Monday to remove a bone spur and loose bodies, a procedure that, of course, was deemed successful.

Broxton hasn’t been seen on a pitching mound for the Dodgers since May 3, his 2010 season reduced to slightly longer than a month, or 12 2/3 innings.

He was initially diagnosed with a bruised bone in his elbow, and then when that healed and the pain persisted, the spur was identified as the problem.

The procedure performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache was not considered major surgery and Broxton is expected to begin a rehab program within days and be able to start throwing again in six to eight weeks.

By then, of course, he will no longer be a Dodger. His $7-million contract expires at the season’s end, at which time he’ll become a free agent.

As his own agent, BB Abbott admitted to The Times' Dylan Hernandez, Broxton may no longer be able to simply throw the ball past hitters.

"The days of Jonathan Broxton throwing 99 and 100 [mph] might be over," Abbott said. "But I think he can reinvent himself. He's still going to be 93-97.

Jonathan Broxton to have elbow surgery Monday [Updated]

 

So the bone bruise wasn’t the problem after all.

With the bruise healed but the pain in his elbow persisting, sidelined closer Jonathan Broxton is considering a minor operation to shave down a bone spur and remove loose bodies, according to people with knowledge of the situation who weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

[Update at 7:20 p.m.: Manager Don Mattingly confirmed that Broxton will have the surgery. It is scheduled for Monday.]

Broxton, who landed on the disabled list in early May with a bruised elbow, threw off the mound on Monday. Because he experienced discomfort a couple of days later, he underwent a CAT scan and MRI exam on Thursday.

The tests revealed the bruise has healed, and indicated the bone spur and loose bodies were probably the cause of Broxton’s pain. The bone spur was identified in May, but one of the sources said there was no way of knowing it was the problem until the bruise healed.

If Broxton undergoes the arthroscopic surgery, he is expected to take six weeks to recover. He should be ready for the start of spring training.

Where that will be remains a question, as the 27-year-old Broxton will be a free agent this winter.

In a story that ran in the Friday edition of The Times, Broxton’s agent said he is open to returning to the Dodgers next season but will test the market.

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Photo: Jonathon Broxton. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times.

Jonathan Broxton won't pitch again this season; now what?

Jonathan Broxton has run out time.

Now what happens to the big right-hander?

In a shock to absolutely no one, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly on Monday said Broxton would not pitch again this season.

"It just doesn’t seem like he’s advanced far enough," Mattingly said. "He hasn’t thrown off a mound, and that’s going to take awhile once you get to that."

Broxton hasn’t pitched since May 3, when he finally admitted his right elbow was bothering him. He was diagnosed with a bruised elbow. He was scheduled to go out on a rehab assignment in mid-June but he suffered a setback.

The Dodgers were still hoping Broxton could at least get healthy enough to pitch the final two weeks of the season, but now have given up on that. He threw off a mound for the first time since June on Monday.

Broxton has 84 saves over his six-plus seasons with the Dodgers, but lost his job as closer last season after posting a 7.13 earned-run average in the second half.

Mattingly pledged his loyalty to Broxton in the offseason and re-inserted him as the team closer. Broxton had seven saves, several of the shaky variety, and a 5.68 ERA this season before going on the DL.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound Broxton is 27 years old, too young to call it a career. He earned $7 million this year and will become a free agent at the end of the season.

His future is what might safely be called cloudy. Certainly, he won’t be able to demand a significant contract coming off his recent performance and uncertain healthy.

"I haven’t thought much about that," Mattingly said. "It’s hard to say. I don’t know what he wants to do."

It’s more like what he can do, which could be simply signing with a team in the offseason as a non-roster invitee. Certainly, some team will take a flier on someone who used to light up the radar gun at 100 mph.

Meanwhile, rookie Javy Guerra has unexpectedly emerged as the team closer. Guerra has 18 saves in 19 opportunities.

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Photo: Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton during a game at Dodger Stadium earlier this season. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Are Juan Uribe and Jonathan Broxton done?

Then they vanished into the great unknown, never to be seen again. The end.

Injured players can tend to do that in September, particularly on teams that aren't exactly in the thick of the pennant race. They just sort of never come back.

Are Juan Uribe and Jonathan Broxton about to go all Rome's Ninth Legion on us and fade into the ether, their final season left an unsolved mystery?

Uribe has been out since July 24 with what was originally diagnosed as a strained left hip flexor. When the team thought he was getting close to a return, he tried running and still complained of pain.

Then officials said the hip had healed, but he had a strain of some sort lower than the hip. Team trainer Stan Conte on Monday called it a sports hernia. That's what medical people call injuries when they don't know what in the hell else to call them. They gave him a shot of cortisone and hoped he'd feel better. Still hoping.

Manager Don Mattingly said if Uribe doesn't respond to the more conservative approach, surgery is an option. Not one anyone prefers, but at some point, what are you going to do?

"Even in the worst-case scenario, we're confident he'll be ready for spring training," Conte said.

Uribe, of course, is in the first season of a three-year, $21-million contract, so he'll be back.  Also, he's hitting .204 with a .293 slugging percentage.

Broxton, however, can become a free agent at the end of the season. He hasn’t been seen on a mound since May 3, or when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. He saved seven mostly shaky games early, sporting a 5.68 ERA and allowing 15 hits and nine walks in 12 2/3 innings. He only begrudgingly admitted his elbow was hurting.

He remains out with a bruised elbow. Broxton thought he was close to returning once before, started to rehab and reinjured the elbow. Now he and the Dodgers are taking it more slowly -– he's still throwing long toss -- though still hopeful he can get back on the mound next month.

"I know if we're going to get the chance to see him, it's going to be late," Mattingly said. "We're willing to see what it looks like, to get him out there for his own mental ... to see how he feels."

It would benefit Broxton's confidence, not to mention his free-agent options, if he can get out on the mound the last couple of weeks and show he's returned to form.

Broxton made $7 million this season, so he's not going to get close to that wherever he ends up next season.

Best guess on Uribe: He's done for the season. On Broxton: He'll try to pitch again the last week or two, but is likely done as a Dodger. Into the ether.

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Photo: Jonathon Broxton, left, and Juan Uribe. Credit: Christina House / Los Angeles Times

The rising of Mike MacDougal: Feel free to breathe

When Mike MacDougal comes into a game, how do you feel?

Confident or uncertain? Assured or plain nervous?

As numbers go, he can put up a couple of pretty good ones: 2.01 earned-run average, one home run in 40 1/3 innings.

Numbers, of course, can be tricky things with relievers. And he can also claim these: 1.44 walks plus hits per inning pitched, 21 walks, 27 strikeouts (1.29 strikeouts to walks).

Maybe you can get by with these number if it’s middle relief, but with Jonathan Broxton and Kenley Jansen on the disabled list and Hong-Chih Kuo struggling, MacDougal is frequently used as the setup guy in the eighth. His status has almost been elevated by default.

It’s not that he’s been awful, but just shaky enough to inspire something less than confidence. Like constant unease.

Dodgers web musings: Jamey Carroll in search of records

Jamey Carroll has been a rare bright spot for the Dodgers the last two seasons.

Maybe no one got all giddy when the Dodgers signed the utility infielder a couple of years ago, but he’s won over fans with his strong play and consistent effort.

He's just having one little problem this season: Driving in runs.

OK, that’s hardly what he’s paid to do. He’s more of a table-setter, someone who gets on base and scores. Still, you play enough, you have to contribute by driving in some runs.

And in 358 at-bats this season, he has driven in just 10 runs. And that followed consecutive RBI games last weekend. He is nine for 53 with runners in scoring position.

ESPN’s David Schoenfield said Carroll has an opportunity to become just the fifth player since 1920 to get 500 at-bats and drive in fewer than 20 runs.

The all-time Bizarro leader: Enzo Hernandez, 1971 Padres: 618 PA and 12 RBIs.

Also on the web:

-- Outfielder Trayvon Robinson, now playing for Tacoma, talks about his days at Crenshaw High: "Ever since I came out of high school, all I knew was the Los Angeles Dodgers," he said.

-- The Biz of Baseball’s Maury Brown looks back on how Major League Baseball ultimately decided to allow the Dodgers to be sold to Frank and Jamie McCourt, after not being able to swing a deal with the NFL’s Malcolm Grazer.

Jonathan Broxton is shut down another three weeks and Don Mattingly says getting him back this year would be a bonus

Yet more evidence the Dodgers roll on per usual, bankruptcy or no:

Jonathan Broxton, thought to be ready to return this weekend, has been shut down for another three weeks after his elbow flared up again. Presumably, the bone bruise became irritated.

Things are so bad with Broxton, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said if the right-hander pitches again this season, he would consider it a bonus.

Sans Broxton -- and Vicente Padilla, and for a month Hong-Chih Kuo -- the Dodgers have tried something of a closer-by-committee routine, although rookie Javy Guerra has emerged as Mattingly’s current late-season choice.

Jonathan Broxton's road back won't lead to automatically being the closer

Jonathan "Big Boy" Broxton made an encouraging first rehab start, but don’t expect him to be handed his closer’s role when he returns.

Seems he’s going to have to earn it a tad, or at least prove he deserves to be back at the end of the bullpen. Which seems only right, considering he hasn’t been right for a year.

Don Mattingly said if Broxton demonstrates he’s back in form, he will be the closer. That means he’ll have to show a lot since he last pitched May 3 and went on the disabled list with an elbow bone bruise and a 5.68 ERA.

"He would be a lot like (Hong-Chih) Kuo," Mattingly said. "It’s hard to just bring a guy back and throw him right in that ninth-inning spot. I think we’ll try to get him into some games, get him comfortable out on the mound and see where he’s at and then go from there."

Realize, of course, that the Dodgers currently have no real closer. Kuo has pitched only one game since returning from the DL with his second bout of anxiety disorder. Rookie Javy Guerra, fresh from double-A Chattanooga, is the nearest thing the Dodgers have to a closer.

Mattingly admitted that aside from brief moments, at no time this season has Broxton thrown the way he is capable.

Javy Guerra, Dodgers' semi-closer, gets job for now

When is a closer not really a closer? When he is called your "semi-closer," apparently.

Meet Javy Guerra, the Dodgers' semi-closer.

That was as far as Manager Don Mattingly was ready to go last week when asked if the 25-year-old rookie, who had never pitched above double A until he was called up last month, had unexpectedly emerged as his closer.

But with the game on the line as the Dodgers clung to a 1-0 lead against the Houston Astros on Sunday, it was again Guerra who got the call. And who delivered.

Three ground balls later, the Dodgers had ended a five-game losing streak and Guerra had earned his second save.

Guerra has risen to his semi-closer role largely because of desperation. Injuries to Jonathan Broxton, Hong-Chih Kuo, Vicente Padilla and Kenley Jansen led to Guerra's opportunity. Somebody had to take on the role.

"Broxton is the closer," Guerra said. "I don't think there's a question about it. The roles we've been thrown in, it's whatever is asked of you every night out. We've all just collectively gone out there and tried to finish up ballgames."