MLB Study Finds Workload Efforts To Limit Pitching Injuries May Be Counterproductive
Image credit: Kerry Wood (Photo by Tom DiPace)
The intentions may have been laudable, but a new MLB study on pitching injuries asks an interesting question: Have the attempts to reduce injuries by limiting pro workloads actually created more pitching injuries?
It used to be that overuse was viewed as the key driver of pitcher injuries. Nolan Ryan may have been able to handle 200+ pitch outings, but mortals could not. So, a pitcher would be asked to work too long in a game, or come back too quickly or pitch too often. Their elbow or shoulder would buckle in response.
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Studies on the topic in the 1990s led to plenty of changes. As a 21-year-old phenom, Steve Avery threw 100+ pitches 14 times during the 1991 regular season and twice topped 130 pitches. When Kerry Wood debuted in 1998 as a 20-year-old, he threw 100+ pitches in 21 of his 26 starts. He topped 120 pitches on eight occasions and threw 133 pitches in his longest start. Both of those young aces—and many others—saw their careers slowed by significant injuries.
In response, MLB teams stopped letting their young pitchers reach those pitch limits. Eventually, veteran workloads were scaled back, as well. Last year, no MLB pitcher topped 120 pitches in a game. The eight-inning start and the 200-inning season have largely disappeared.
Those kind of workloads have steadily disappeared from the minors even faster than they did in the majors. MLB and MiLB pitchers pitch counts are closely monitored. Nowadays, young minor league starters are often pulled after four or five innings. They never pitch on short rest and relievers are prohibited from pitching on back-to-back days because of concerns that it may raise the risk of injury.
Young major league starters also have their workloads very carefully monitored and are often limited in the total innings they throw to try to avoid injuries.
The end result? It’s not working.
While the days of overuse injuries in pro baseball have largely disappeared, the overall number of days spent on the MLB injured list for pitcher elbow injuries has tripled over the past 20 seasons.
No one is saying the change in usage patterns has led to the difference, but some experts consulted by MLB are starting to ask a different question: Could these workload reductions inadvertently result in conditions leading pitchers to pitch in ways that raise their injury risks?
As the study notes: “Club representatives noted that certain workload management practices, which are intended to keep players healthy, may have unintended effects on player health. In this respect, there is a perceived trend of minor league players being underprepared to handle major league workloads. Experts view certain workload management practices in the minor leagues—which include innings limits and more rest between appearances for starters, or restrictions on relievers pitching back-to-back days or appearing three times in four days—as failing to adequately expose pitchers to the demands of the major league season.”
It means that when pitchers do reach the majors, they are not prepared for the increased expectations and workloads they are asked to handle as big leaguers. It’s especially true with relievers.
“When do you throw your first back-to-back? It’s in the major leagues. Same with three out of four days. They’re not getting exposed to it in the minor leagues. That’s a lot of strain on your arm, if you’re not accustomed to monitoring your warm-up pitches in the bullpen and used to the recovery afterwards to prepare yourself for the next day. Physically, it’s a lot more demanding.”
– Former major league pitcher quoted in the MLB study on pitching injuries
Similarly, starters aren’t asked to carry an MLB workload until they reach the majors.
“In trying not to break young arms, you’re doing them a disservice. A phenom will come up and you’re putting him into a five-man rotation, whereas in the minors he pitched every sixth day, and he’s never thrown more than 75 innings in the minors, and now he’s going to go 125? My last game in college, I threw 190 pitches. That’s not good either. But at some point, you’ve got to pitch back-to-back, you’ve got to throw a lot of pitches or innings, and if you don’t do that until you’re facing Mookie Betts, you’re going to put a lot of strain on your arm. So you’ve got to train these guys for marathons and not sprints.”
– Another major league pitcher quoted in the MLB study on pitching injuries
The same trend has come to college baseball. The average workload by college pitchers at the top of the draft has declined significantly over the past 20 years. There are still rare examples of pitchers being overused during the NCAA regionals, super regionals and College World Series, but overall, college pitchers don’t throw as long in games or as frequently as they did a generation ago.
Quoting from MLB’s study: “College coaches pointed to the fact that colleges have begun handling their pitchers more conservatively—both during the college season and in summer baseball environments (including the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team), with college pitcher workloads following a similar trend to professional pitcher workloads. See Figure 19. Such management helps to assuage concerns regarding the high volume of college pitchers. However, similar to professional baseball, such conservative workload management will allow college pitchers to throw at maximum effort more frequently, which may contribute to injuries that the workload restrictions are designed to avoid.”
So what can be done? The answers at the pro level aren’t easy ones, but the MLB report does have recommendations:
“Conventional wisdom holds that the best way to preserve pitcher health is to manage pitchers conservatively—i.e., fewer pitches and more rest. There is, however, a growing consensus that conservative treatment may actually expose pitchers to greater injury risk by encouraging them to throw max effort with every pitch. Indeed, many experts agreed that creating a system where pitchers are encouraged or required to moderate their activity and throw at sub-maximum effort to go deeper into games may be better for pitcher health.
“Experts recommended that MLB consider changes to the playing rules and roster rules to create a better system for sustaining pitcher health—a system that would increase the value of pitcher health and durability and decrease the value of short-duration, max-effort pitching. For instance, playing rules could be adjusted or designed to encourage or require starting pitchers to preserve enough energy to allow them to pitch deeper into games. These incentives could be supported by roster rules that more appropriately regulate the availability of pitchers on a roster or in a team’s bullpen for a given game, including potential changes to the number and frequency of transactions that allow clubs to replace pitchers on their rosters. Such rule changes would be designed to increase the value of durable pitchers and incentivize players and clubs to focus on training for durability instead of short-term, max-effort performance.”
