Tommy John surgery is on the rise among youth players
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Alex Kirilloff, the Minnesota Twins’ No. 1 pick in the 2016 MLB draft, met the high expectations swirling around him during his first season in the minors, earning the title of Appalachian League Player of the Year with a .306 average and seven home runs.
But in late August, the Plum product injured his left elbow on a throw from the outfield, and earlier this month, he underwent Tommy John surgery.
As a sometimes-pitcher in high school, Kirilloff wasn’t overworked, and now he is an outfielder in the Twins organization. But “the cumulative effect” of hitting, throwing and pitching — along with his intense baseball schedule while he transitioned from high school to professional baseball — wore on him, said pitching expert Dennis Esken, who has known Kirilloff since he was 5.
“He had that whole winter to spring, and then he was drafted right into the summer, and then in the summer it happened,” said Esken, a special advisor to Kirilloff’s father’s baseball training school. “It was the wear-and-tear effect.”
Kirilloff is now a victim of an issue that has long been associated with professional pitchers, but the injury is limited neither to pitchers nor to professionals.
Tommy John surgery is on the rise, and ulnar collateral ligament problems are a major issue in youth baseball. Fifteen to 19year-olds accounted for 57 percent of Tommy John procedures in the United States from 2007- 2011, according to a 2014 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
While pitch counts and rest are fingered as ways to prevent the injury, several risk factors are being studied. John D’Angelo, director of league economics and strategy for MLB, identified several potential risk factors for Tommy John injury, including fastball usage, number of pitches, number of pitch types, rest between outings, release points, weight, height, age, peak velocity, average velocity and even mound height. One theory holds that better awareness around the injury accounts for much of the increase.
“There’s not one factor in this whole thing,” said Gary Green, medical director for MLB and