Dodgers’ Pitching Woes: A Lens to Injury Factors
Andre Manzo
October baseball has produced an ecstatic buzz for the Dodger faithful. Their appearance in the 2024 World Series has evoked excitement as Hollywood’s finest continue their run. Although stars like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman continue to headline, there is no doubt about the absence of familiar stars on the pitching mound.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff, for the majority of this season, has suffered. Injuries ensuing continuously, the clubhouse has made their playoff run without the reliability of starters like Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone. It raises the question: with injury rates seemingly at an all-time high, are the Dodgers the encapsulation of the league's recent rule changes and their consequences?
Baseball fanatics are aware of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) recent rule changes: the pitch clock and the extreme crackdown on sticky substance usage for pitchers.
The pitch clock has reduced gametimes to an average of 2 hours and 36 minutes in 2024. ESPN has reported success for sports networks and stadium attendance. Games are at their shortest average time in 40 years. The rule debuted in 2023 and has increased viewership for networks by 7 percent and attendance has had its greatest spike in 7 years, based on statistics on the 2023 season.
An older, but relatively new change, has been MLB’s discipline for sticky substance usage for pitchers. Integrated in the midst of the 2021 season, pitchers have since been subject to mandatory checks of substance presence on their caps, gloves and uniforms.
Executives and enthusiasts alike had agreed that the presence of Spider Tack or excessive sunscreen had plagued the game, giving pitchers an unfair advantage over batters with increased spin rates and velocity. Instead, the assistance of pitch grip has been limited to the league’s provided rosin bag on the mound.
With the contextualization of both rules now present, it provides interest on how they interact with each other. More specifically, has the risk for injury been illustrated by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching woes?
According to CBS Sports, the ballclub has suffered over 11 arm related injuries that have sidelined pitchers with extended time on the injured list. On the surface, it is bad luck.
However, this does not close the window for speculation that league wide rule changes have had an exceptional impact on all teams, illustrated heavily in the Los Angeles clubhouse.
The interaction between the two new rule changes is simple. With only 15 seconds allowed, 20 when a runner is on base, to be in motion for their next pitch, pitchers have been restricted with their visits to their rosin bag, their only source of assistance to grip the ball. Pitching arms are subject to their highest stress in history.
Preliminary conclusions by the National Library of Medicine from the 2023 season suggest that pitching injuries have seen a decrease from the 21’ and 22’ seasons. Tommy John Surgery, Flexor Tendon Injuries and other shoulder or elbow injuries have stayed consistent. Yet, the concerns are still very much present.
Throwing a baseball 90 miles an hour is already unnatural enough for the human arm. The MLB is at an all-time high with high profile pitching injuries, with 35.3 percent of all pitchers having had Tommy John Surgery according to baseball injury researcher Jon Roegele.
With competitiveness at an all-time high, the demands for deep pitching arsenals, extreme velocities and optimized spin rates are all to blame.
With the MLB adding drastic rule changes, it is no question that they have and will factor into this plague of arm fatigue. Modern pitching is at its peak, and the conversation needs to be opened on the league’s interference with the injury epidemic. It is fire added to an already blazing inferno.
When Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times asked Dodgers’ general manager Brandon Gomes about their solution to injury factors, the response was “We just don’t know.”
Players like Walker Buehler are a standing result of the modern game’s demands. Buehler, at age 30, has already recovered from two Tommy John Surgeries. Pitching beyond the body’s capabilities is the new standard and the new expectation for young pitchers is that Tommy John Surgery is inevitable to survive in today’s game.
Even as a star-studded clubhouse, with some of the highest paid athletes in the sport, the Dodgers are an example that no team is exempt from the multitude of factors that have contributed to arm injuries.
It would be inconclusive to point a finger on just one factor. Instead, they need to be contextualized and understood, especially as studies are in their continuous preliminary stages. These athletes, on a world stage for millions to see, are only human.
For the sake of their safety, it is crucial that the MLB Player Association’s dissatisfaction with the pitch clock implementation is preserved and compromised with.
As we head into the close of the 2024 MLB season, remember the faces that are being missed during this injury crisis. The question has been presented. Is the league sacrificing talent for the benefits of viewership and attendance? The truth is, only time can tell.
New York Yankees’ Game 1 starter, Gerrit Cole said it best when interviewed by ESPN. “Every time you adapt to something there is a cost… But what are MRIs going to look like 10 years from now? Five years from now? What are guys' elbows going to look like pitching under the pitch clock for a prolonged period of time?”