Reliance on slider caused tendon tear, Strasburg says
WASHINGTON — Stephen Strasburg has a theory for the source of the forearm stress that culminated in a partially torn pronator tendon in September: an unhealthy relationship with his slider. Strasburg fell in love with the pitch, which he incorporated for the first time last season, because it produced quick outs. He noticed it generated additional soreness after starts, but couldn’t stop himself as he steamrolled through the All-Star break and jumped out to a 14-0 start. The dependence resulted in a disastrous beginning to the second half, a stint on the disabled list, and his walking off the mound Sept. 7 in the third inning of his return wondering if he needed a career-threatening second Tommy John surgery.
“You’re always trying to improve your game and it’s tough because I had success with it,” a bushy-bearded Strasburg said at Nationals Winterfest on Sunday. “I didn’t really think that anything was going on. I just know that based on my symptoms that pitch became the one pitch that didn’t really feel good throwing it. With that said, just looking back on the numbers, a lot of it was overuse. My arm just wasn’t accustomed to throwing that pitch that many times.”
According to FanGraphs, Strasburg, 28, threw the pitch, which he considers more of a slider than a cutter because of its movement, 17.1 percent of the time. It was his second-most-used pitch, supplanting his curveball, which was used 12.6 percent, down from 22.4 percent in 2015. He threw his fastball 57.2 percent and his changeup 13.1 percent. Strasburg said he isn’t going to remove the slider from his arsenal. He was happy with its effectiveness. He just wants to limit its use, particularly early in counts.
“I think it became easy for me to try to get lazy with it and maybe fatigue a little bit quicker because it’s just a stress on your arm that you really have to build up over time, but you have to do it the right way,” Strasburg said.
Strasburg was supposed to enter free agency this offseason, but chose to sign a seven-year, $175 million extension in May, allowing his attention to center on rehabbing his forearm. Strasburg said he believes the pronator tendon is fully healed and harbors no doubts.
Those were washed away when he got back onto a mound during the postseason and emerged from bullpen sessions unscathed. He held out hope that the Nationals would play deep enough into October for him to return, but the five-game loss to the Dodgers in the National League Division Series shattered the chance of a dramatic comeback.
Strasburg said his offseason training has gone unimpeded and he’s focusing on strengthening his forearm. He’ll begin throwing on schedule, immediately after Christmas, and expects to be ready for spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla. Once there, pitching coach Mike Maddux plans on duplicating last year’s throwing program, but altering the regular-season version between starts — as opposed to last season, when Strasburg was doing so well in the first half and Maddux, working with him for the first time, took a more hands-off approach.
“Once we start the season we’ll maybe to a little different throwing program,” Maddux said. “Save more bullets for every fifth day. So it’s going to be his decision. We’ll see what works for him. But at the beginning of last year, we stayed right on track with what we were doing because, why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t you? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But then it broke, so let’s tweak it a little bit.”