The implementation of the MLB pitch clock was a big hit with baseball fans, but at least one pitcher is sounding the alarm.
Last season, the first with the pitch clock, saw the average game time decrease 25 minutes, from over three hours to two hours and 40 minutes.
This year, the pitch clock with no runners on base is set to decrease from 20 seconds to 18, and Braves pitcher Spencer Strider is concerned.
“There’s an injury epidemic in the game regardless of velocity,” Strider told USA Today. “If anything, the league is making rule changes despite an injury epidemic that could very well be encouraging injuries, such as the pitch clock, limiting the number of pitchers on roster, how many pitching changes you can make, how many mound visits you can have – all those things are making pitching harder and potentially, I think, making health more difficult to manage.”
Strider had Tommy John surgery when he was in college at Clemson, and as a flamethrower led MLB with 281 strikeouts last season.
“With injury rates where they are, I don’t know how we can blindly decrease the clock after the worst injury season in baseball, arguably, without having a conversation about injuries. The league talks about creating more action on the field,” Strider continued.
“Well, when the best players in the league are hurt, how much interest is there in the game?”
Thirty MLB pitchers underwent Tommy John surgery or a similar other elbow procedure last season.
However, Glenn Fleisig, who leads the American Sports Medicine Institute’s biomechanics research, and learned under famed retired orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, told the outlet that this was not outside the bounds of where the trend lines had been.
“We’ve reviewed data from last year and the number of injuries to major league pitchers is in line with the trend from the last decade,” Fleisig said.
“Last year, with the pitch timer, did not seem to bump the injury rate up or down.”