FRIARS THINK LAMET CAN AVOID SURGERY
Team tries to decipher why so many elbow injuries
Manager Jayce Tingler was asked Wednesday whether the Padres have examined the reasons for the rash of Tommy John surgeries that have repeatedly sidelined their pitchers and what can be done about it.
“That to me is probably the holy grail of baseball,” he said. “I don’t think necessarily the elbow is a Padres situation. We’ve had our fair share. That’s why I’d say whoever can figure that portion out, I would consider that the holy grail of the game.”
He is correct, to a large extent. The invasive elbow surgery, which requires more than a year of recovery, has been required by many pitchers on many teams.
However, the Padres have had 10 pitchers in their organization undergo Tommy John surgery since March of last year.
According to the online database Tommy John Surgery List,
there have been 63 reported Tommy John surgeries among players at all levels of professional baseball over those 13 months. Six teams had none. The next-highest total by a single team was the Pittsburgh Pirates’ five.
The list, which is kept by researcher Jon Roegele, relies on surgeries that are reported publicly. Two industry sources said the MLBwide total is likely higher, particularly among minor leaguers. The list does contain all the known Tommy John surgeries for the Padres in the past 13 months, and seven of the team’s major league pitchers had the procedure in that time.
The Padres are looking into why they have been hit by so many, even as they express optimism that No. 11 is not forthcoming.
Right-hander Dinelson Lamet, who left his first start of the season Wednesday after two innings with forearm tightness, reported feeling good when he arrived Thursday at Dodger Stadium, and the team plans for him to play catch today.
“He feels very, very good,” Tingler said Thursday afternoon. “We’ve had some good signs there. The plan for him now, we’re going to continue to check him out. … They’re pretty encouraged with everything they’ve seen and tested so far.”
Optimism has generally been the team’s default public response when a pitcher has an elbow injury. Sometimes that optimism is founded. Other times, the pitcher has had Tommy John surgery.
An ultrasound Wednesday revealed no troublesome inflammation, and no
MRI is planned. Lamet’s elbow has been imaged and examined several times since the end of last season. According to several sources, Lamet has passed every test from the time he began throwing in December and never reported any discomfort while working in spring training or pitching in alternate site games. He reached almost 98 mph on multiple pitches Wednesday, and his slider moved as usual. He reported tightness — not pain — after recording his fourth strikeout to end the second inning.
Going back to last September and October, Lamet was checked out by multiple
orthopedic surgeons around the country and none thought Tommy John surgery was necessary. He underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy and rested longer than normal in the offseason.
Tingler and others in the organization have theorized the adrenaline affected Lamet on Wednesday.
Lamet and reliever Keone Kela (shoulder) were placed on the 10-day injured list Thursday. The Padres activated right-hander Nabil Crismatt and lefthander Nick Ramirez to bolster their bullpen.
“You look at all the work Lamet has done up to this
point and this has been our first setback,” Tingler said. “… We’ve been pretty day-today, step-by-step with him so far. But the idea is if everything goes well, maybe he’s got a bullpen mixed in there and maybe a live (batting practice) And if everything goes well, we’re going to shoot for him to make the start after the 10 days are up.”
Regardless of Lamet’s medical status, one team source said the organization plans to reassess what it can do to lessen the risk of ulnar collateral ligament blowouts.
Three orthopedic surgeons said Wednesday it is
unlikely anything the Padres have done has contributed to the rash of UCL injuries.
“Most likely, it’s bad luck,” said Dr. Timothy Gibson, an orthopedic surgeon at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley.
He said it is just as likely over the next 13 months the team will have the least occurrences of UCLs needing reconstruction.
Two other orthopedic surgeons, both of whom have worked with major league teams and currently work with college athletic programs and did not want to be quoted, volunteered the same opinion.
One of the doctors said the Padres would have to be teaching pitching in an almost completely different way and adhering to a recovery program that varied greatly from the rest of baseball for it to be an issue of their making.
Of the 10 players in the Padres organization who have had the surgery since March of last year, nine came up through the team’s minor league system. Mike Clevinger underwent his second TJ surgery in November, three months after being acquired in a trade.
Even so, Gibson said, “I still say it’s a coincidence.”