If so, I feel a lot better about my 2018. That’s when I started working at Motus, on basically the very device these pitchers are wearing. I’d written about it as far back as 2014 at Bleacher Report, so if this is finally the year that MLB gets serious about direct workload monitoring, I’ll be happy. Lance Brozdowski does a great job breaking pitching down, doing it as well as anyone, so with that and his pitch mix discussion, the video above (and all of his work) bear watching and taking notes.
Am I biased about this? Hell yes, I’m biased. I not only wrote about that piece of tech, but worked for the company for three years. A great three years, where I learned a ton, by the way. The tech was purchased by Driveline and is clearly getting more traction through their ubiquity. (Reminder: I’ll be moderating a panel featuring Driveline’s Kyle Boddy at SABR next month.) The tech is simple and the objections to it were always pretty stupid. “I don’t like the sleeve” is terrible, though charging was and remains a weak point. However, the gains from throw count vastly outweigh any small annoyance.
Teams should have gotten this years ago and while in-game wearables are largely not necessary - Hawk-Eye does most of it and what it can’t could be easily inferred or even tracked - its the other days when the eyes and cameras aren’t necessarily on you in the same way. You’d think every team would have this everywhere, or at least in pens, but tracking the long toss, the warm ups, and everything else is a blank space aside from wearables. A study back in 2019 by Dr. Jason Zaremski showed that players and coaches vastly underestimate the number of throws they make on game days and his more recent work on a novel workload methodology indicates we can do a lot better.
If this is the year of the wearable, I’ll say about time, so let’s get to it:
METS ROTATION
With talk of a modified six-man in play for the Mets, they’ll need six healthy guys, which they don’t have as of right now. The idea is to keep guys like Kodai Senga, who was limited by arm and leg injuries last year, and Clay Holmes, transitioning to the rotation, on a limited workload. That makes sense, though I would normally say an ace-level pitcher like Senga should get more opportunities, not less. I get it with his innings and a knowledge of his injury history.
To make that work well, they’ll need to have Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea, and Paul Blackburn all healthy, as well as everyone else. Currently, Manaea is down with an oblique strain that will cost him the start of the season, though sources tell me the injury is “very simple, very straightforward.” He just will have to rebuild his workload, likely in XST with a couple rehab starts. That’s a few less starts for the big club and a bit of a loss in quality.
Montas is on about the same timeline after his lat strain. A biologic injection has helped, but he’s still not going to make Opening Day. Some ask why I say “biologic” rather than PRP and that’s because many teams don’t do just PRP. While there are limitations on what can be added to a PRP and how it’s prepared, that doesn’t mean they do just one injection. There’s other substances that can be used to help the healing, with stem cells aspirated from the player being common, as well as more exotic ones like exosomes and even amniotic fluid, which obviously doesn’t come from the player. “PRP” has become shorthand for what is a bigger field and in most cases, the team and player doesn’t give details.
There’s plenty of depth to do a six-man even as Montas and Manaea build up, but there’s a drop in quality. Going six-man means the Mets will be going eight deep for at least a good portion of April and those games count as much as any others. Getting your best team on the field means getting your best pitchers the ball as many times as possible, even if that means less starts for your best pitchers. Yeah, that’s a confusing sentence, but the reason this plan is under consideration.
BRANDON NIMMO, OF NYM (plantar fasciitis)
STARLING MARTE, OF NYM (inflamed knee)
It’s not just on the pitching side where there’s some injury concerns for the Mets. The outfield has two issues, with Brandon Nimmo coming off an offseason focused on his foot and Starling Marte fighting knee issues, age, and a loss of his starting role to some kid they signed. Marte is functionally a platoon DH and occasional outfielder with Juan Soto a Met now, which should help with that knee.
Marte isn’t playing in games yet, nor is he even taking live batting practice as the medical staff tries to find the best method to keep him healthy. There’s rumblings that the issue is chronic and could push Marte to retire after his contract ends with this season, but he’s nonetheless been productive over the last few years. Oddly, I’ll be watching to see if he steals at all, especially in early spring play. That’s been the best indicator of health, perhaps a sign he’s playing instinctively again instead of through pain.
Nimmo’s foot has been a success story thus far, but plantar fasciitis is often recurrent and chronic. I’d heard one story this off-season that he was experimenting with a very cushioned cleat, more akin to a Hoka-type shoe than normal. Cleats seldom have much in the way of cushioning and even baseball spikes can be problematic for foot sensitivity. I’m actually surprised there’s not more innovation, but Nimmo’s shoes that he’s worn thus far seem much more standard.