Entry# 3 Why are There More UCL Tears in the MLB in the Modern Day?

 WHY ARE THERE MORE UCL TEARS IN THE MLB IN THE MODERN DAY?

    In 2024, MLB teams all over the league have experienced season ending injuries throughout the entire season. In a 162-game season and extra games throughout October for the Playoffs bad injuries are bound to happen. However, there has been an extreme increase in season ending injuries for pitchers. Pitchers' most popular injury occurs in the elbow. Specifically, the UCL, Ulnar Collateral Ligament. If a pitcher has a complete tear in the ligament, they will need full reconstruction with a surgery called Tommy John Surgery. The surgery was named specifically after a pitcher named Tommy John who had this procedure done on his UCL.  Recovery takes over 1 full calendar year of recovery before they can pitch in a major league game again. People have been speculating since the start of the season and dating back to last year, wondering what the issue for the influx in injury is. The article Why are MLB pitching injuries on the rise? Four possible causes from pitch clock to changes at amateur level - CBSSports.com depicts very good reasons. They do a very good job of not swaying towards one possibility because there are multiple factors that go into the issue

Velo:

There are a few reasons people believe about the rise in injuries for pitchers. One reason is the rise in velocity Since the start of the 2015 season the average fastball in miles per hour has increased at a very constant rate. In April 2015 the average was 92.6 to now in April 2024 is 94.0. Just this summer Ben Joyce, Angels pitcher, had the fastest strikeout at 105.5mph. Along with the average speed rising, spin rate is increased as well. With both of these comes faster elbow speed which is more stress on the elbow causing more injuries. 

article

Pitch Clock:

Another possibility is because of the pitch clock. This forces pitchers to speed up their routine before each pitch otherwise the pitcher will be punished. This also forces more stress in the elbow because there is less time of recovery in between each pitch. Before 2023, a pitcher used to take essentially as much time as they'd like in between pitches. There is a 0:15 second limit to pitch the ball without any runners on the bases. There is a 0:20 second time limit with runners on base. The pitch clock has been a rise of concern since it started last year. When it started last year, this was the first thing people went and blamed. 

image

This article has very good information about the topic of pitcher injury. There is no bias towards any specific reason for this issue. However, the main cause in my opinion is because of velocity. Velocity will always be increasing with these young kids throwing between 90-100+ mph as early as 16 years old. There are pitchers in the league pitching 105mph. The stress caused by this high velocity will always increase injury. With the addition of the pitch clock, injury will continue to increase until something is changed within the league. This will not happen though, unless some mechanism is created to limit injury it will always be problems.