Max-effort pitching can take a heavy toll on the arm. The human elbow is not meant to withstand that sort of strain.
This past week the Miami Marlins announced that emerging star Eury Perez would need Tommy John surgery, just as staff ace Sandy Alcantara did.
Cleveland Indians ace Shane Bieber is headed for Tommy John surgery. Atlanta Braves ace Spencer Strider also has elbow damage, although he hopes to avoid his second Tommy John procedure.
The list of elite pitchers on baseball injured list is impressive: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Lucas Giolito, Brandon Woodruff, Walker Buehler, Shane McClanahan, Kodei Senga and German Marquez. Shohei Ohtani can hit, but he can’t pitch this season.
Arm and shoulder injuries have always been an occupational hazard for pitchers, but the issue is getting worse.
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The Cardinals have been famously reluctant to invest massive long-term dollars on pitchers due to the injury risk. Bill DeWitt Jr. would rather invest in position players who offer more certainty of return.
More teams may be seeing it that way, given the soft markets for pitchers Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery in free agency during the recent offseason.
Writing for The Defector, Barry Petchesky offered an overview:
The numbers tell a convincing and worrying story of a trend. Last season saw the second-highest number of UCL surgeries performed on MLB and minor-league players—263, second to 2021. Last season also saw the second-highest number of rostered pitchers who had spent time on the injured list the previous season—49.3 percent, second to 2022. MLB pitchers spent 31,558 days on the IL last year, more than double the amount from 20 years ago. UCLs are fraying and tearing and snapping at rates the game has never seen, and it is, broadly and undeniably, getting worse.
Numbers are numbers, but names tell the story better. You can tell me elbow injuries are up, and that's one thing, but tell me my team's best starter and reigning Cy Young winner, historically robust and available, is out with elbow inflammation, and tell me my team's most dependable middle reliever is having season-ending elbow surgery, and I listen. The thing is: Every team can tell a version of this story.
Writing for USA Today, Bob Nightengale added this detail:
The most alarming aspect to this rash of pitching injuries is that there’s no end in sight, with MLB commissioning a research study and interviewing medical experts.Â
There were more than 260 major-league and minor-league pitchers in 2021 who had elbow surgeries, an increase of more than 400% from 10 years ago.Â
Pitchers requiring a second Tommy John or elbow surgery have now doubled.Â
While shoulder injuries have diminished, 35.7% of all pitchers on MLB rosters at the end of last season had undergone Tommy John surgery at one point in their lives, according to researcher Jon Roegele’s studies. Eleven more have had it since, bumping that percentage up to 37.0%.
Teams spent a major-league record $1.147 billion last season on salaries for injured players and their replacements, mostly pitchers.Â
The MLB Players Association released a statement last week blaming the pitch clock for this crisis. MLB offered a counter argument, noting that there is no evidence of that.
While forcing some pitchers to work more quickly could be an injury factor, Tipsheet believes the bigger issue is today’s emphasis on maximizing velocity and spin rate on every single pitch.
The quest for “swing and miss†stuff takes a heavy toll. Teams are burning through their pitchers and their pitching prospects at an alarming rate.
Perhaps some day pitchers will have bionic elbows that allow them to fire away without fear, but until then teams will have to stockpile hurlers and brace for the inevitable injuries to come.
TALKIN’ BASEBALL
Here is what folks are writing about Our National Pastime:
Bob Nightengale, USA Today: “The Miami Marlins, who could be the first team to conduct a fire sale this summer after their 0-9 start, may also find themselves needing a new manager in 2025. Skip Schumaker, the NL manager of the Year last season, is a free agent after the year. The Marlins originally had a club option on Schumaker in 2025, but the Marlins agreed to void the option during contract talks this past winter. Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox and Schumaker certainly would be the hottest names on the managerial free-agent market.â€Â
Alexandra Whitley, Baseball Prospectus: “Continuing in last year’s form, (Lance) Lynn’s 12:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio insists that he’s due for brilliance, only for the homers to pile up. To this point in his career, he’s never posted a losing win-loss record, preserving that on Thursday via no decision; this seems about as advanced as ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ analysis of pitching.â€Â Â
Mike Axisa, : “The Dodgers are a powerhouse, as expected. And also as expected, the infield defense has been at best suspect and at worst a liability. Freddie Freeman is a tremendous defender at first base and he is the only Dodgers' infielder playing his natural position. Max Muncy is a first baseman masquerading as a third baseman, Mookie Betts is a right fielder playing shortstop, and no one seems to know where Gavin Lux fits best . . . The plan going into spring training had Betts at second base and Lux at shortstop, though Lux had trouble making routine throws in spring training -- this is an issue dating back to his days as a prospect -- so the Dodgers flipped them. Manager Dave Roberts called the move ‘permanent, for now.’ Even at second base, Lux is still shorthopping throws over to first.”
Brian Murphy, : “Adolis García will probably get a rather boisterous welcome from the Houston faithful when he comes to the plate all weekend long. He crushed the Astros' dreams during last year's ALCS as he homered in each of the final four games of the series, including a two-HR performance inside Minute Maid Park in Game 7. García, who has four long balls in his first nine games, slugged a three-run shot in a 10-2 win on Friday.”
Ginny Searle, Baseball Prospectus: “The records of the involved clubs (1-9 for Miami, 8-2 for New York) belie what should actually be a decent match among these Eastern seaboard opponents. (Jesus) Luzardo has rarely been too far on either side of a 100 DRA- (last year’s 89 DRA- was both a career-best and the only time he’s been further than 10 points from the median), but he’s always gotten plenty of strikeouts, a trait into which he’s leaned since heading to Miami. (Nestor) Cortes meanwhile is trying to get back on track after regressing hard from a career-best 2022, and will be looking to match or exceed the seven Ks he put together through two starts.â€
MEGAPHONE
“This is not an epidemic. This is a pandemic. It’s been going on forever, and it’s getting worse. People have been trying to come up with all kinds of solutions, but it ain’t working.’’Â
Former big league trainer Stan Conte, to USA Today, on pitching injuries.