MLB knows it can’t survive without quality arms. Pitching arsenal optimization, maxing out velo, and modern attitudes about usage are pushing pitchers to the breaking point at multiple levels of baseball.
The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging you have a problem. Major League Baseball has done that via a 62-page report commissioned to study the uptick in injuries to pitchers. Pitching is arguably the game’s most valuable commodity and treasured natural resource. But the MLB arms race to weaponize pitchers’ stuff with ramped-up velocity and increased vertical break, horizontal break, and spin rate is ending in mutual destruction — and too many stints on the injured list.
Each week, Boston Globe Today Sports host and Globe sports columnist Christopher L. Gasper provides commentary on a notable sports topic in the segment “Write or Wrong?”
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It turns out engineering pitchers for max output like they’re a supply chain model isn’t a good idea. The human arm has its limits. Throwing harder has become the Holy Grail and the art of pitching has been overpowered by the pursuit of swing-and-miss stuff. That’s why we get maximum-effort outings from openers, bulk relievers, and mix-and-match bullpen arms in pursuit of outs.
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Something has to give for the good of the game and its mound-men.
We look to modern technology to solve so many of our problems, but that’s not the answer here. Newer and better doesn’t always end up sticking the landing on better, which is why so many pitchers are earmarked to land on the IL, simply as a byproduct of the way baseball is played and thought about these days.
It’s time for a changeup.
Boston Globe Today Sports airs every Friday at 5 p.m. on NESN and is available to stream on-demand on the Globe’s website. Segment produced by Derrick Willand.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.
Too many pitchers are ending up on the injured list
