It might sound rough, or graphic, but baseball has evolved to prioritize performance over long-term health and players are often used and discarded as if they were medical supplies.
According to The Athletic, “injury-list placements for pitchers rose from 241 in 2010 to 552 in 2021 before decreasing slightly each of the past two seasons, according to a Major League Baseball spokesperson.”
That spike is outrageous, and it happened in about a decade.
Not only has the number of injuries increased, but so has the average time spent on the injured list.
MLB definitely has a problem on its hands.
The Athletic spoke with Dr. Keith Meister about the number of injuries and he attributed the problem, mainly, to the rise of new “power pitches.”
“One of MLB’s leading orthopedic surgeons is sounding an alarm on pitching injuries. Dr. Keith Meister cites the advent of the sweeper and power changeup as significant reasons for the spike,” they tweeted.
One of MLB’s leading orthopedic surgeons is sounding an alarm on pitching injuries.
Dr. Keith Meister cites the advent of the sweeper and power changeup as significant reasons for the spike.@Ken_Rosenthal and @enosarris on his findings ⤵️https://t.co/zaM3JHZntl pic.twitter.com/E6FUzUINcG
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 8, 2024
Traditionally, throwing a slider puts more stress on the arm and the ligaments than, say, a four-seam fastball.
Now, on top of sliders, teams have been teaching hurlers around the league the sweeper, which is a slider with more pronounced horizontal break and a different velocity profile.
This added movement, of course, results in the elbow and other parts of the body suffering the consequences.
That’s why pitchers don’t last as long on the mound as they used to, say, 30 or 40 years ago.
The day teams start thinking about the long-term health prognosis rather than short-term results, injuries will start decreasing significantly.
This is unlikely to happen, though, because then they would risk being left behind performance-wise.
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