Last year, 59 pitchers endured Tommy John surgery, and 140 suffered elbow woes. Baseball is in the middle of an injury crisis. Is there anything we can do about it?
Last year, fifty-nine pitchers went under the knife for Tommy John, and 140 spent time on the IL for elbow injuries. That’s an average of nearly five per team. Baseball is in the middle of an injury crisis. It has been for a while. Is there anything we can do about it?
Pitcher injuries have always been high–there are references all the way back in the 1950s to talented arms “losing their zip” and never being the same–but the most dreaded three letters in baseball these days are U-C-L (Bingham, 1959). The ulnar collateral ligament is a frequent reason for a trip to the surgeon in modern baseball: around 35% of pitchers in the MLB have had Tommy John surgery at least once, and that number is only growing (Lacques, 2023).
How to change the trend is a complicated issue. Opinions are wildly varied, and there is no singular reason for the increase in elbow injuries. This article doesn’t have a magic bullet either. We have the current medical literature, alongside some expert opinions from differing fields, and hopefully a slightly different perspective that presents some promise, all gathered over the course of nearly two years. Let’s start at the start.
Director of Dynasty Content - Canadian born and raised, moved to Arkansas with my wife and two sons Ezra and Ari. Followed and played baseball my whole life; played dynasty for 25+ years.
