The 2024 season of Major League Baseball has just begun! While there are plenty of fascinating stories to go around, I don’t think there has been one as fascinating as the amount of injuries have occurred already. While injuries are coming year in and year out, the one element that stands out the most to start off 2024 is the insane amount of injuries that have occurred to pitchers. The number of injured pitchers has been……disturbing! If you don’t believe me, here’s a list of all of the notable pitchers that are on the IL as we speak!
Gerrit Cole, Jacob DeGrom, Shohei Ohtani, Sandy Alcantara, Shane McClanahan, Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber, Felix Bautista, Justin Verlander, Tony Gonsolin, Luis Garcia, John Means, Eduardo Rodriguez, Robbie Raby, Sonny Gray, Brandon Woodruff, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Alex Cobb, Drew Rasmussen, Gavin Williams, Lucas Giolito, Bryan Woo, Nick Lodolo, and Framber Valdez.
There’s probably a few others I forgot to mention and I wouldn’t be surprised if another big one joins the list as soon as I published this piece.
That amount of injured starting pitchers at the same time is INCREDIBLY alarming! Not only because most of the pitchers on this list are considered among the very best pitchers in baseball but how the number continues to grow by each passing day! If this is not a sign that there has been a pitching problem in baseball, then I don’t know what is!
The big question everyone likely has is how did this all happen? While many have referred to the addition of the pitch clock, I think it’s much much complicated than that. You have to look back about a decade ago with the way pitching changed in today’s game. Today’s pitching philosophy puts a MAJOR emphasis on the amount of speed, spin rate, and velocity that each pitcher can throw. It’s no longer about pitching to contact but pitching has hard as you can! While the standard miles per hour with a fastball used to be in the lower 90s, it now ranges in the high 90s and low 100s! Just as much as the hitting approach in today’s game has changed due to the strict focus on power and launch angles, the pitching approach in today’s game has changed due to the strict focus on speed and velocity.
On one hand, it’s always impressive to see pitchers throw at a max 90 mph or a min 100 mph! To put that much time and work into increasing how fast you can throw a baseball has to be commended! However, that also puts a great risk on the human body and arms! There’s only so much one person can take with their arms and body before they decide to shut down and even break apart entirely! This is ESPECIALLY the case in regards to starting pitcher, who usually start to run out of gas by the time they get to the 5th inning!
While pitching injuries has always been common in baseball, the new philosophy in pitching that puts the focus on speed, spin rate, and velocity has caused these injuries to skyrocket! Back in the day, it wasn’t so much about pitchers trying to throw as hard as they could but throw as effectively as they could. They put the majority of focus on mixing pitches, finding different ways to get each hitter out, and trying to go deep to the game as they can! However, that line of thinking has changed big time in the year 2024! It’s been ten years since we saw Madison Bumgarner’s EXTRAORDINARY pitching performance in the Giants 2014 World Series run and I don’t think we could be any further from that timeline than we are now!
Nowadays, the pitching philosophy just can’t measure up to the same standard as old school baseball! Because the majority of the focus is how fast and hard pitchers can throw, they are unable to go deep into games because their arm will be wore out by the time they reach the halfway point of the game. Because pitchers are all about setting new records on the radar gun, there’s not much in-game planning because it’s usually about fastballs and one or two filthy, breaking pitches! Because there is a constant push on this pitching approach that is likely to break a pitcher’s body or arm sooner rather than later, an avalanche of injures have occurred and will continue to do so!
I view this current situation with too many pitchers getting injured the same way I looked at too many blockbusters bombing at the box office last year! In the sense, that the bubble has finally burst and at long last, consequences are being faced on flawed, ill-fated philosophies that not enough people have the solution for! It has all finally come crashing down and no one but the people in charge should be surprised to see this all happen!
All this could make me wonder is whether or not it’s the beginning of the end of this philosophy with pitching! Are we about to go back to the basics where it was all about mixing pitches and going as far into the game as you can? Are we going to see more focus on pitch to contact instead of just constant spin rate and velocity? Are we going to see starting pitchers feel more like starting pitchers back then and not just a pitcher that just so happened to start the game? If the answer to all those questions is no, then baseball needs to at least consider it if they want healthier pitchers in their future!
The main thing that has become very obvious with high velocity pitchers is that there is no chance for them to have as long of a career as some of the legends of old. Regardless if you are a high velocity relief pitcher that comes into over 50+ games a year or a high velocity starter coming into 30 games a year and at least 150 innings, you have very little chance to have a long lasting career pitching in the big leagues.
All you have to do is look at poor Stephen Strasburg! A once highly valued prospect that had to cut his career short before he got to reach a new peak due to severe injuries with his pitching arm and body overall. Despite the Nationals trying to do everything in their power to preserve him and have him pitch out in a long career, that wasn’t enough. The amount of speed, spin-rate, and velocity in every pitch he threw would eventually get the better of him! After his superb performance in the 2019 playoffs and given a massive seven-year contract extensions, he was only able to pitch in just eight games for the remainder of his career! He gave every bit of energy he had left in him in 2019 to give the Washington Nationals their first ever title! While I’m sure that Strasburg doesn’t regret that, I’m sure he wishes it didn’t involve giving up the rest of his career to do so!
If Major League Baseball continues to double down on the modern style of pitching, then expect even more pitching injures for the inevitable future. This style is beyond broken and needs to be changed! Pitching should be more than just throwing hard! It should be about finding different ways to get hitters out and using all eight position players on the field in order to do so! By continuing to go down this path, not only does this lead to more injuries but it also hurts the product on the field due to the amount of noteworthy pitchers that are unable to make their presence noticed on the pitching mound.
I’m certainly beating a dead horse when I said this but I’m going to do it anyway. Baseball has a pitching problem and it’s time to fix it now more than ever!
Adam's Blog 