MINNEAPOLIS — It’s happening again.‘’
Pitchers – front-line starting pitchers, in particular – are going down with injuries at an alarming rate. And the overall trend line for pitcher injuries has been going up for years now.
Former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber and emerging Miami Marlins right-hander Eury Perez are likely headed to the operating table for Tommy John surgery. Atlanta Braves flame-thrower Spencer Strider will likely have to have his second Tommy John surgery. Reigning American League Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and Houston Astros ace Framber Valdez are out with elbow injuries.
The list of pitchers already sidelined and recovering from elbow surgeries includes two more former Cy Young winners, Sandy Alcantara and Robbie Ray, past All-Star Game starter Shane McClanahan and Baltimore Orioles closer Felix Bautista (relievers are not immune). Washington Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray is out with a flexor strain (often a precursor to surgery). The Dodgers have three pitchers – two-way star Shohei Ohtani, Walker Buehler and Dustin May – recovering from their second elbow surgeries.
And it’s not just elbows that are breaking. Clayton Kershaw and Brandon Woodruff are recovering from shoulder surgeries. The New York Mets’ Kodai Senga and the Astros’ Justin Verlander are also sidelined with shoulder injuries.
“I hope we don’t wait too long (to address the problem),” Verlander said recently – ironically after a rehab start. “Because right now, it’s a pandemic.”
How to address the rising rate of pitcher injuries is something no one has been able to identify. Pitchers throw fewer innings than they did in the past, are protected more from the moment they sign their first professional contract – and yet are getting hurt more often than ever.
“I really don’t have any solutions to it,” Buehler said on the Just Baseball podcast this week. “I could go on and on about the pros and cons of everything. But it just…
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