There’s a growing concern about pitching injuries
FORT MYERS, Fla. — At times, the injuries seem so common that it’s easy to remain numb to them.
On Monday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora revealed that lefthander Chris Murphy has been dealing with discomfort in the “elbow area” and would undergo an MRI.
“Worried, of course,” Cora said. “He’s a little bit concerned with the elbow. We are, too.”
While a diagnosis is expected as soon as Tuesday, the Sox hardly need to wait to find out Murphy’s status for reminders of the fragility of their profession. Evidence of the risks of pitching are present at every turn in the clubhouse.
Lucas Giolito’s arm is in a brace following elbow surgery earlier this month. He won’t throw a single pitch for the Red Sox this year. Nearby, Liam Hendriks still has months left in his rehab from Tommy
John surgery; a best-case scenario might have him in the Sox bullpen sometime in the second half of the season.
Televisions offer updates on injuries to standout pitchers around the league such as Gerrit Cole, Kodai Senga, and Kyle Bradish — among many others. Several star pitchers have been declared unavailable for Opening Day, if not the season. What is happening?
Veteran Red Sox pitchers have different theories. Some see a game that is struggling with the unavoidable destruction associated with Icarus-like ambition — the constant quest for more velocity, more spin, sharper breaking balls, more everything representing the wax-winged flight toward the sun.
Pitchers, once trained to approach their craft as a slow, steady build, are en
couraged to redline on nearly every pitch, even during (and often before) the meaningless games of spring training. The willingness to experiment and reshape pitches in a “lab” setting can reveal paths to remarkable peaks, but the pinnacles are precarious.
“I’ve had this conversation the last few days [about injuries],” said Sox reliever Chris Martin. “Everybody is chasing elite stuff. Different grips, different types of mechanics, trying different things over and over can maybe cause stress on different parts of your body that you’re not used to using.”
Recently, Keith Meister — the Rangers’ team doctor — suggested to The Athletic that he feels the increased use of the sweeper and power changeup has increased arm stress, resulting in more injuries. Martin, who experimented with a sweeper last year but scrapped the undertaking when he felt discomfort in his elbow, agreed with the premise — and expressed concern that young pitchers feel pressured to develop their arsenals in ways that risk injury.
“It’s extremely difficult because you want to impress everybody around you — especially the guys on top making decisions,” said Martin. “It can be difficult to voice what you’re feeling. If you’re hurt, you’re not playing. The next guy comes up and takes your spot.”
Both Kenley Jansen and Nick Pivetta, meanwhile, pointed to MLB’s pace-of-play directives as a potential cause of injury.
This year, with runners on base, MLB is allowing pitchers 18 seconds to deliver the ball — down from 20 a year ago. That change was implemented this winter by the 11-person competition committee — with all six MLB representatives voting for it, and all four Players Association representatives voting against it. (The committee also has one umpire.)
“It’s up to the owners and it’s up to [MLB commissioner] Rob Manfred to protect us and they’re not protecting us at all. They’re asking us to do more when we’ve already done so much,” said Pivetta. “The biggest thing that’s changed is the pitch clock. They shortened the time again on us without really communicating to us at all.
“All the union votes were against it. [MLB] went ahead and shortened it anyways because they think it’s better for the game, but I thought the game was plenty quick enough last year. I would assume that is probably the biggest [cause of the injury wave this spring].”
Jansen — the slowest worker in baseball before the introduction of the pitch clock in 2023 — said he still supports its use. But he, too, expressed concerns that the league’s decision to further limit the time between pitches would affect the health of players.
“I adjusted to the pitch clock. I’m not [complaining] about it, but we’ve got to be honest and start to [look at] the health of the players. I think it’s not right that we’re jeopardizing it,” said Jansen. “When you’re [throwing at] max effort with the pitch clock, worrying too much about numbers and all that stuff, careers are going to get shortened.
“At the end of the day, we’ll keep developing [new pitchers], so by the time you’re hurt, we’ll have another one. It sucks. I still believe in having the pitch clock somehow, some way, but we’re pushing it too much.”
The premise is debatable, for a number of reasons. Independent studies by both Fangraphs and Johns Hopkins University found no correlation between changes in pitchers’ pace and injuries. Meanwhile, nearly 99 percent of pitches with runners on base last year were thrown with at least two seconds left on the clock. Finally, pitcher injury list placements in 2023 were down relative to the prior two years in four of the six months of the season.
Nonetheless, amid what seems like a relentless succession of injuries around the sport, pitchers see considerable cause for alarm — with a growing sense that they’ve become disposable, and that lengthy careers will become ever rarer.
“This just can’t happen,” said Jansen.