The root issue behind MLB’s pitching injury epidemic is obvious

MLB’s pitching injury epidemic seemed to hit its tipping point in the first full week of the new season.

Miami Marlins young star Eury Pérez is set to undergo Tommy John surgery. So will Shane Bieber, who was pitching like the Cy Young version of himself. Spencer Strider might join them after an MRI revealed he suffered damage to the UCL in his pitching elbow. 

All of these injuries in the first week-plus of the season are on the heels of Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John scare in spring training, Shane McClanahan, Sandy Alcántara and Jacob deGrom undergoing the surgery over the past year, and Shohei Ohtani needing a second UCL repair that will keep him off the mound until 2025.

To me, the reason we’re seeing an uptick in pitchers needing elbow surgery is clear. And no, it’s not the pitch clock or the lack of sticky substances, which I’m sick of hearing about. 

For too many pitchers, especially the younger ones, every time they step on the mound, they throw the crap out of the ball and hit triple digits on the radar. And when they’re not throwing hard fastballs, they’re throwing curveballs or sliders and other offspeed pitches with as much spin as possible. 

It wasn’t always this way. John Smoltz relayed on “Flippin’ Bats,” last year that the way pitchers throw the ball has changed dramatically in just the past decade; they weren’t always looking to regularly touch 100 mph. My brother, Justin Verlander, had a 102 mph fastball in his back pocket when he came up to the majors. But he didn’t try to hit that mark with every pitch. He would sit at 92, 93 mph and ramp it up later in games.

These pitchers are coming up in the age of Driveline Baseball, a data-driven development program, and decide they want to pitch as fast as they possibly can all the time. I’m not trying to put Driveline on blast here, but these high school pitchers think they won’t get a scholarship if they don’t pitch in the mid-90s, or that they won’t get drafted if they can’t reach the high 90s. 

I know my brother agrees with me.

“I think the biggest thing is that the style of pitching has changed so much,” he told reporters Monday. “Everyone is throwing the ball as hard as they possibly can and spinning the ball as hard as they possibly can.

“It’s a double-edged sword. How can you tell somebody to not do that when they’re capable of throwing 100 mph? Something needs to change.”

We’re seeing that bear out in all levels of baseball now, with amateur pitchers feeling the pressure to rip it and spin it.

But the human arm can withstand only so much, and it’s not built to function this way. The root of the issue is so clear to me, and so frustrating because it’s taking out so many of the top arms. 

Baseball needs Strider. But since the day he was called up, he’s been trying to throw every pitch at 100 mph. It doesn’t work like that. 

So, how do we fix this? Well, point to the pitchers who’ve been able to make it work without having to throw as hard as possible. Verlander is going to be a Hall of Famer and is one of the best pitchers of all time. Watch his tape from when he came up to the majors and learn how you can put away hitters at 92, 93 mph. 

Strider’s one of the best pitchers in the world. He doesn’t need to throw 100 mph to put away hitters. Trust your stuff! Pitch in the low-to-mid 90s with your slider and new curveball and it’ll work. If you’re in a jam late in your outing, that’s when you can tap into your top-end stuff because you know you have a 100 mph fastball. You don’t need it for every pitch. 

As for what Strider’s injury means for the Braves, I think it’d be an overreaction to say that they’re not going to win the NL East this season. The Braves are still the best team in the division and one of the best, if not the best, in baseball. This club is loaded. I had Strider winning the NL Cy Young Award this year, so this is a huge blow, obviously. How many times have we heard, “UCL injury, we don’t know if it’s Tommy John, but there’s damage to the ligament”? It’s not a good sign. 

Strider will likely be out for an extended period, either way. For how long? Who knows, but I felt the Braves had the best rotation in baseball coming into the season. Without their ace, they still have a really good rotation. Max Fried is capable of being an ace, and I loved the addition of Chris Sale. Where Atlanta would especially feel his absence is in October. Baseball, meanwhile, will feel it every fifth day until he returns.

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the “Flippin’ Bats” podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him at @BenVerlander.

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