The arm injuries have been piling up for a decade. A Tommy-John here and a rotator cuff repair there.
The surgeries are so common place now, that they often occur to teenagers still competing at the high school level and Major League Baseball franchises still spend first-round draft picks on prospects who have either had either of the aforementioned operations or are known to need a serious operation in the coming weeks.
The New York Yankees selected Clarke Schmidt with the 16th overall pick in the 2017 MLB entry draft just two months after the right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. More recently, Toronto used its 19th overall selection in 2021 to take right-hander Gunnar Hoglund of Ole Miss, another Tommy John recipient.
The industry is no stranger to the plight of injuries pitching prospects are dealing with in this era. A 2013 study by Will Carroll of Bleacher Report revealed an astounding 124 pitchers of the near 360 who opened the 2013 season had Tommy John history.
The obvious question that follows is why? Why after 150 years of baseball in which pitchers have thrown as hard as they can with an overhand delivery have elbow and shoulder ailments skyrocketed over the last 20-odd years?
Is it overuse as Dr. Frank Jobe contended to Carroll in 2013? Is it simply the fact that the surgery exists now where it didn’t back in 1970 and prior, that recovery is nearly a guarantee? Is it due to poor mechanics or more fragile ligaments being developed through DNA? Or is it poor training methods and a lack of strategic strengthening of the arm?
Until a complete research project is accomplished in which at least 80 percent of the Tommy John recipients detail their pitching regimen going back to the first year they started pitching, I doubt the industry will ever know.
It’s easy to claim overuse. I believe this to be the lazy, poorly researched fall back. If the arm is failing, surely it’s because it has been put through too much stress.
Yet, how is that stress being administered? Did the injured pitcher throw a large number of pitches at max effort in an abbreviated span of time without adequate and necessary rest? Did the injured pitcher have clean mechanics? At what age did he begin pitching in earnest? What kind of stretching exercises did the pitcher complete (or not do) prior to pitching?
These are key questions as we try to get a firm grasp on this awful trend in the game. What is apparent, though, is none of the new approaches to preventing injury are helping. Whether it is limiting innings totals over the course of a season or the completely arbitrary pitch count of 100 being a cut off point or the mandatory five days of rest between starts, none of it seems to matter. The injuries to elbows and shoulders continue to pile up. Just last season, top pitching prospect of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dustin May, had his season cut short in May after five starts and 23 innings. This after May threw sporadically at best over the pandemic year of 2020 and 106.2 innings in 2019.
You could easily argue May’s right arm was as well rested as it ever had been heading into 2021 in which he won a spot in the Dodgers’ rotation. And yet he still went down after his UCL failed.
“What I would like to see these (surgeons) do . . . is ask all of the guys who have had the surgery, ‘How much did you pitch as a kid and how often, and did you pitch year-round?’ And nowadays, probably 70 to 80 percent of the pitchers today, have been pitching 12 months a year since they were seven, eight, or nine years old. And your arm is not made for that.”
Tommy john
He’s not the only one either. A whopping 115 baseball players in 2021 underwent Tommy John surgery, including 32 pitchers at the MLB level per “How They Play“.
Tommy John himself believes doctors should ask every pitcher who lies on his/her operating table to detail their respective pitching history down to their first time throwing as I mentioned earlier.
“What I would like to see these (surgeons) do . . . is ask all of the guys who have had the surgery, ‘How much did you pitch as a kid and how often, and did you pitch year-round?’ And nowadays, probably 70 to 80 percent of the pitchers today, have been pitching 12 months a year since they were seven, eight, or nine years old. And your arm is not made for that.”
Yet, even John does not think to mention stretching exercises utilized, the number of pitches thrown per time on the mound or to address the mechanics.
It is my contention and always will be that the industry of general managers, coaches and player development directors are going about handling professional pitchers all wrong. The arbitrary pitch count of 100 is not preventing arm injuries. The pre-set arbitrary inning limits, whether it may be 160, 180, 200 depending on the pitcher, is irrelevant.
As far as I’m concerned — and until a thorough study is completed — the factors to be monitored and addressed are pre-game stretching/arm loosening methods, pitching mechanics, stressful innings (defined by max output for 30-plus pitches) and rest, both in season and in the offseason.
Given normal training and arm build up with an efficient arm stretching regimen prior to every outing, there is no reason any pitcher cannot throw 140 or more pitches every time he takes the mound. Now, this isn’t needed every single outing. Many times pitchers are more efficient than this, can complete a game on 110 pitches or even fewer. Subsequently, many pitchers are not effective enough to warrant being pushed over 125 pitches in an outing. That is not being argued.
The idea that a pitcher has to be halted after six innings and 98 pitches despite holding his opponent to one run on four hits and no walks, however, is being debated. If said pitcher has logged pitch totals of 16, 17, 13, 12, 21 and 19, there’s no reason he can’t be allowed to go out again for another 15-20 pitches in inning seven and another 15-20 pitches in inning eight. Give him a ninth inning if those innings are more efficient. Again, all dependent on the success he’s having against the opposing hitters. If he’s wild in the zone, walking hitters, losing the feel of his offspeed pitches and/or seeing his fastball hammered all over the yard, by all means take the pitcher out.
But given an effective starting pitcher, why are we limiting him to 100 pitches and six innings when more can be attained without adding to injury risk? As a manager, you are deciding to burn another arm (or two or three) to cover the innings left that the starter was capable of covering. That equates to more pitchers getting up and throwing every day. How does that make sense? If you want to keep your pitchers rested, why are you searching for ways to use more of them in every game? It’s contradictory.
The industry needs to do its research and return to the old way of developing pitchers. Ensure clean mechanics. Teach every pitcher proper arm loosening exercises prior to each start (see Trevor Bauer as a reference for what I am talking about). Watch for stressful innings. Mandate regular rest between starts and during the offseason.
This is the way to prevent arm injuries moving forward. Not cutting pitchers off at 100 pitches or limiting your minor leaguers to 50 innings in their first professional year.
Stop the madness. Curtail the rash of arm injuries. Do it for the health of our players and the health of the game.
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