Injured in 30 Seconds

After the 2022 season, Major League Baseball implemented a couple rule changes in order to make our game more appealing to the average baseball fan. They widened the bases, limited pickoff attempts, banned the defensive shift rule, and implemented the pitch clock. These four rule changes were added to help generate more interest in our beloved game of baseball. To MLB's credit, the games are not only going quicker, but teams are hitting better. At the time of this article, the league batting average is at .248, it's highest since 2019. Stolen bases are up as well reaching 0.70 per game, which has not been seen since 1999! The run difference has not shown as big of a jump, though. Teams are scoring 4.58 runs per game so far in 2023 versus 4.28 in 2022. It is still admittedly early so we could see a significant change in these numbers; however, the rule updates are working as planned and I am still enjoying the shift rule, limiting pickoffs, and larger bases. (Baseballreference.com)

That, however, is where my support ends. Sure, the pitch clock has good intentions. I can specifically recall numerous instances where it took well over one minute for a pitch to be delivered. Baseball content pages on Twitter have even gone as far as posting videos highlighting how slow some of MLB's pitchers are at delivering a pitch. My personal favorite is when you get to see how many inside-the-park-homeruns Jose Altuve can hit before David Ross hit his iconic World Series Homerun. Hey, I get it man, it's excessive and even a little cumbersome. The extra time does not add to the experience. However, there is a clear cost.

What is the cost? Injuries, specifically to pitchers. I used a combination of ESPN.com and Fangraphs.com to compile the data. In 2022, there were a total of 559 pitchers that had spent time on the injury list. (SP or RP). As of the time this article, ESPN has 268 pitchers on the IL. We are already at 48% of our 2022 total. There are a few pitchers that were on the IL in 2022 that are still there in 2023 but I do not believe that would change the number.

Lets say for arguments sake, that 25% were carry over's from last year. Bringing us down to 201. If we hold that constant over the next 4+ months, we will see 603 pitchers visiting the IL that equates to an 8% increase from last year. I think that 25% is a little generous, it is probably closer to 20%, which now puts us at a 13% increase from 2022.

The combination of the new rule changes have shortened games by roughly 30 minutes so far in 2023 compared to 2022. We can point to the pitch clock being the contributing factor as to why games are finishing quicker. The question is, will the extra 30 minutes be worth its employee's arm health? I sure do not think so. Apparently 1B limbs are more important. As a former college 1B, I can appreciate it, but that play is a rare occurrence. Let's hope that MLB can see the writing on the wall and make an adjustment that keeps both executives and pitchers happy.

--Andrew Solliday