The Major League Baseball season is barely underway, yet the rise in pitcher injuries has emerged as one of the primary early-season storylines.
High-profile pitchers like Shane Bieber of the Guardians, Spencer Strider of the Braves, and Eury Pérez of the Marlins have all succumbed to arm injuries, prompting concerns across the league.
"It's tough to tell an athlete…don't be the best version of yourself. But if that best version of yourself is ending up with you getting hurt, I would suggest we need to find another way."@Ken_Rosenthal weighs in on the pitching injury crisis in Major League Baseball… pic.twitter.com/t2tF1W3bSp
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 10, 2024
The issue escalated with a series of conflicting statements from the Players Association and the league itself.
Tony Clark, head of the Players Association, pointed fingers at the implementation of the pitch clock as a contributing factor.
He suggested that the reduced time between pitches could lead to increased fatigue and subsequent injuries among pitchers.
The change of the ball in 2016 so that it flies out (as Verlander said) made the pitchers need to miss bats much more, and they started throwing too hard (fast and breaking). But in 2023-24 the injuries just jumped so significantly!! Pitch clock can’t be discounted.
— Thy Will (@ThyWill70) April 9, 2024
In response, the league issued a rebuttal, dismissing the notion that the pitch clock is responsible for the surge in injuries.
They maintained that current evidence doesn’t support such claims.
Why are there so many pitching injuries?
New video dropped & I immediately got this from a coach:
"Monitoring workload independent of lifestyle choices (is) futile… most of the variables related to health outcomes are out of our control." 👀
Tease ⬇️, full vid next tweet. pic.twitter.com/aLRTVHI4hz
— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) April 4, 2024
The spotlight on this issue intensified when New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who is recovering from his own elbow problems, weighed in.
Speaking to the Associated Press, the reigning AL Cy Young award winner expressed his frustration at the contentious nature of the debate.
“I’m just frustrated it’s a combative issue,” Cole said.
“It’s like, OK, we have divorced parents and the child’s misbehaving, and we can’t get on the same page to get the child to behave, not that the players are misbehaving, but we have an issue here and we need to get on the same page to at least try and fix it.”
"It’s like, ‘OK, we have divorced parents, & the child is misbehaving & we can’t get on the same page.’"
Gerrit Cole shared a rehab update, but his thoughts on pitching injuries, MLB & the MLBPA were way more interesting.
Transcript @NYDNSports. #Yankees https://t.co/AFavIA0eMq
— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) April 8, 2024
Cole also questioned the sincerity behind the league’s statement, particularly regarding Commissioner Rob Manfred’s concern for players’ well-being.
“Rob cares about the players,” Cole stated. “He’s supposed to care about players, he’s supposed to really deeply care about them, like that is his job. I don’t know if he wrote that statement, I don’t know who wrote that statement, but did anyone put a name on it? … At least Tony [Clark] did.”
When we see so many up and coming MLB pitchers with fewer than 200 innings in the minors, lots of muscle mass, underworked baby ligaments and a team demanding max velo on everything they throw, we’re seeing the perfect lethal combination for arm injury#pitching #injuries #mlb
— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) April 10, 2024
As the debate rages on, the primary suspect for the surge in pitcher injuries appears to be the relentless increase in pitch velocity over the years.
Justin Verlander, a three-time Cy Young winner currently recovering from shoulder inflammation, echoed this sentiment.
He, along with many others, awaits the results of MLB’s ongoing study on pitcher health in hopes of identifying concrete solutions to address the issue.
Justin Verlander called the pitching injuries a “pandemic”. If you have the time, I suggest you listen to his thoughts on the matter. It’s well worth it pic.twitter.com/SpQwjvgkU5
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) April 10, 2024
Until then, frustration and concern will continue to linger as the league grapples with finding a balance between game pace and player safety.
Gerrit Cole about to blame the eclipse for pitching injuries. https://t.co/BcMYOT4IBO
— Tom Ruminski (@TomRuminski) April 8, 2024
What do you chalk all the pitching injuries up to?
The pitch clock did exactly what it was intended to do … Game length drastically improved thanks to the new pace-of-play rules that were implemented a year ago.
However, are they partly to blame for the increase in pitching injuries???