Cooperation needed to fight pitching injuries
The Players Association and Major League Baseball exchanged dueling news releases last weekend. The union struck first, sending out a statement that blamed the alarming number of injuries sustained by pitchers on the league reducing the pitch timer from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base.
MLB responded later that day by claiming the union ignored the “much more significant long-term trend, over multiple decades, of velocity and spin increases that are highly correlated with arm injuries.”
Red Sox righthander Lucas Giolito has a unique perspective to offer on the matter. He has eight seasons of major league experience, is a member of the union’s executive committee, and is out for the season after having surgery for a torn elbow ligament. It’s the second such surgery he’s had in his career.
Giolito thought the pitch clock was effective last season and didn’t see a reason to shorten it with men on base. But he’s not convinced that’s led to more injuries.
“Maybe it played a part among other things,” Giolito told the Globe. “But I think one of the big things we’re seeing is guys chasing velocity and throwing a lot more of those hard sliders and sweepers. Slider usage is really going up.”
As a pitcher, Giolito feels he’s paid to strike out batters and avoid contact and that stresses the arm.
“That’s the nature of the business,” he said. “Baseball is always evolving and we’re in this stage now of analytics. We value the strikeout and the home runs. The best way to combat home runs is swing and miss and, for that, you have to throw hard and get those good spin numbers.”
That has produced a game of pitchers either throwing as hard as they can or stressing their arms to throw unhittable breaking pitches. That injuries are on the rise can’t be a surprise.
When Giolito attended his first major league spring training in 2016, the object of live batting practice was simply to throw strikes and work on location. Now pitchers show up in early February throwing at game speed six weeks before Opening Day.
“Every single pitch is scrutinized, even when you throw in the bullpen. You get instant feedback,” Giolito said. “For a guy trying to make the team, you have to hit certain numbers. That’s always going to put more stress on the arm.”
Instead of fighting over the reason, the union and the league would be better served to work together at preventing injuries.
“I think that might be necessary if we continue to see guys go down at this rate,” Giolito said. “Fans want to see the best of the best competing, and if everybody’s hurt, then it will hurt the game.”
Astros star Justin Verlander, who is on the injured list recovering from a shoulder strain, sees the quest for velocity as being counterproductive.
“Everybody’s throwing as hard as they can and spinning the ball as hard as they can. It’s hard to deny those results,” he told reporters after a recent minor league start.
“It’s a double-edged sword. How can you tell somebody to go out there and not do that when they’re capable of throwing 100 [miles per hour]? A young guy comes up throwing 95 and gives up the big homer and everybody’s like, ‘What the hell, man?’
“Something needs to change. I don’t have all the answers.”
Even an accomplished pitcher such as Verlander feels he has to get swing and misses as opposed to locating the ball and inducing weak contact and quicker outs.
“That went out the window when everybody started to leave the yard, especially opposite field,” he said.
Verlander feels the game needs to further tweak the rules to force teams to develop starters who can turn a lineup over three times.
“No teams are incentivized to do that,” he said. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s the nature of the game.”
One way would be mandating teams forfeit the designated hitter once they take their starting pitcher out of the game.
“I just hope that we don’t wait too long. It’s going to take years to work itself out,” Verlander said.
Verlander winces when he sees video on social media of youth players throwing as hard as they can and working on breaking balls.
“I sure as hell didn’t do that,” he said. “I didn’t figure it out until college and matured in my body. If I came up in today’s world, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, a former pitcher, believes organizations would be open to change.
“It’s a really difficult situation to wrap your head around, just giving the competing interests in throwing hard, spinning the ball, and generating swings and misses because of the impact it has on being able to win games.
“If anyone had a perfect solution, we’d be all ears. But to date nobody seems to have one.”
Breslow could even imagine teams working together on solving the issue.
“It’s something that’s getting more attention. Teams are working toward potential answers and solutions,” he said.
“Teams are now investing in motioncapture technologies to try to understand how and when forces are applied to different joints. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these efforts are consolidated. But there’s a competitive advantage in being the team that can understand what’s driving injuries first.”