Increase in pitching injuries raises concerns among MLB
Multiple pitchers have been sidelined with injuries this spring. Lucas Giolito, Kodai Senga, Justin Verlander, Kevin Gausman and Sonny Gray are just some of the big names that have headed to the injury list.
As recently as Monday, it was announced that Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will be undergoing an MRI on his throwing elbow. Though the extent of the injury has yet to be determined, manager Aaron Boone stated that Cole had a hard time "bouncing back between starts" during spring training.
Pitching injuries have steadily increased over the last decade. The increase has raised concerns for many around the league, and experts are struggling to pinpoint what the exact cause is.
Some pitching injuries could be attributed to teams emphasizing a pitcher's performance over their availability, according to Texas Rangers head physician Dr. Keith Meister.
"These front offices, unfortunately, are living more in the moment than taking a longer, broader-term view," Meister told The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Eno Sarris. "There is a way to manage this. What if a guy doesn't have a WHIP of 0.8. What if he has a WHIP of 1.1 but he's able to play 162?"
Meister also theorizes that two pitches, the sweeper and the hard changeup, are possible culprits.
"What I've talked to MLB about is, look, we have all this data on performance," Meister said. "We also have all this data on health. We have to marry these two metrics. I'm not going to sit here and tell you to never throw a sweeper or never throw a hard changeup. But at some point, you have to say 'Okay, when we see a pitcher throwing that pitch more than 15% of the time, the likelihood of him having an injury to his shoulder or elbow goes [up], whatever, tenfold."
Injury placements increased from 241 in 2010 to 552 in 2021, but have slightly decreased over the last two seasons. The number of days pitchers spent on the IL more than doubled over a longer span.
The increase has led the MLB to conduct a study on the injuries, according to Rosenthal and Sarris. The league has done over 100 interviews that include doctors, athletic trainers, independent researchers, college coaches, club executives and former pitchers.
After the study, MLB aims to form a "task force." It is unknown what the exact role of the "task force" would be, but some speculate that it will offer recommendations to teams and pitchers based on their findings from the study.
As velocity and movement become more prioritized, the number of injuries is bound to increase as pitchers push their bodies to the farthest limits humanly possible.
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