I think yesterday might have been the biggest day for injuries all season, which honestly says a lot considering how frequently players have been getting hurt.
Just yesterday alone, the Giants put Mike Yastrzemski and Brandon Crawford on the IL, the Yankees put Aaron Judge on the IL, Ronald Acuna was listed as day-to-day, the Astros put Jose Urquidy on the IL, and the Phillies announced Cristian Pache, one of those 'magic hat' players if I've ever seen one, needs surgery.
That's...a lot of big people going out on the same day. And I don't even think it's the only big day for injuries we've had this year.
Look, it was already clear that pitchers were gonna keep getting injured, because I don't think many of them realize that throwing this hard every 5 days is gonna need surgeries to sustain. So, like, Jacob deGrom landing on the IL, yeah, that was gonna happen either way. Various other pitchers getting injured, sure, everyone throws hard and they're not figuring out that it's not sustainable.
But now, because everyone's throwing this hard their entire college and minor league careers, the injuries are happening even earlier. It's been well reported that Hunter Greene got his Tommy John surgery while he was still in the minors, so now that he's throwing this hard I don't have to worry about him needing it anytime soon. But now we have Easton McGee, who had an incredible start on Sunday, only allowed one hit, and this was his first ever MLB game, and then like 24 hours later the Mariners announce he's going on the IL.
It was...IMMEDIATE. Pitches game, then it's like he went FROM THE GAME TO THE IL. Like, okay, great work kid, now sit here for 15 more games. Jeeeez. You think, like, there might be an issue with how people are playing if they get injured this easily?
The initial response to something like this is 'well, don't players get injured this frequently every year?' And most people say that without registering it. Like, 'hey, people hurt themselves really easily less than a month into the season on a perfectly normalized rate'. That's...bad. Maybe we should figure out a way for people to not get hurt as much. Because you look back about 30 years and the injuries weren't this frequent. Pitchers didn't have 2 great seasons and then miss a year and a half and come back serviceable. You can say 'oh well they're hustling and playing harder', they were hustling then and the injuries were fewer. Ozzie Smith did backflips and he rarely got hurt. Ronnie Acuna has some athletic prowess that's honestly par for the course for him and he still gets scratched and possibly put back on the IL.
Is it also possible that some of the new rules have contributed to this? I'm not one to do the math, but if it's a quicker game, people are exerting themselves more and with less time in between, so that may be wearing out the players quicker. I don't think the league brass would ever see themselves as the culprit here, but maybe if someone were to compile stats and compare to how things were before the rule changes and submit them to the MLB, that might get it through to them? Who knows. Until then, take your bets for which beloved MLB star is gonna get injured next.
Coming Tonight: This, folks, is what it looks like when your rotation stays healthy and, for the most part, meets expectations.
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