Under The Knife 3/24/23
Oblique Movements
A longtime MLB coach called me on Tuesday, asking if I knew why we were seeing what seems like a big increase in oblique strains this year. I don’t, but he has a theory.
“I had a young player come back to me after the off-season,” he explained. “Good season for him, getting himself established in the pen and learning the routine. He’d been a starter most of his life. First thing he does when he comes in is show me this crazy workout he’s been doing. Second thing he does is get on the mound for the first workout and strain an oblique. I have a feeling it’s related.”
Baseball in general has become a more athletic game, with yoga, primal movements, and other types of movement-focused workouts coming to the forefront. The question is whether any of these work. There’s no large scale studies and even anecdotal evidence is scarce, largely because players don’t like talking about what they do in the off-season.
Worse, there’s very little we can do beyond the anecdotal, since spring injuries aren’t publicly tracked. The IL doesn’t come into play until the regular season, so many injuries that happen vanish because of timing and if this is indeed a movement dysfunction or imbalance, it would be most prevalent early.
Of course, the answer would be for MLB to track this internally, but they largely don’t. Even research access to medical information is very limited and by rule anonymized when it is. Teams do, to some extent, but even then, they might not have complete insight into what players do or don’t do.
(The above video is just one I thought was interesting on the subject and comes from someone very credible in Dr. Kelly Starrett. I’m certainly not implying that he’s one of the programs discussed here that’s causing issues.)
There’s one other anecdotal piece of information from that coach that I find interesting. “We give all our minor league guys their own program,” he told me, “and we have less oblique strains in all of our minors than we do in the guys in big league camp. Tell me it’s not because these guys have the money to go hire these coaches.” On that latter point, I’ll disagree. The game even to the lower level is largely based on private coaching (and privilege, sadly) and I don’t see any rash of early season oblique injuries across the college landscape.
There’s no easy answer here, but collecting data would be a start. Maybe there should be a session at the next MLB medical conference … oh wait, there isn’t one of those.
No surprise, we’re on to the injuries:
FERNANDO TATIS JR, SS/OF SDP (fractured wrist/torn labrum/rehab)
Fernando Tatis Jr. is back in spring training and playing well, but remains under suspension for the next XX games for last year’s steroid violation. There was a new Joint Drug Agreement that went into effect in 2022 with the new CBA, and I was finally able to get a look at it to see if there were any changes. There are, but none that seem to affect Tatis.
First, Tatis is eligible for the postseason, if the Padres make it this year. The post-season ban is in effect for the season of suspension only, even if a player has served the suspension. In essence, this makes only one post-season at risk; either a player misses the playoffs by rule or by suspension. Since Tatis sat out last year’s, with the Padres 12 playoff games counting towards his suspension games.
Second, Tatis is eligible to return (pending schedule) on April 20th. That would make about a three week gap between the end of spring training and the end of his suspension. However, under the JDA, Tatis can “accept a minor league assignment” for 15 days, given that his suspension is over 51 days. (One person I spoke with questioned this, as to whether it is the total suspension or the remaining suspension, which would only give Tatis a six day assignment and more of a gap.) With 15 days, it’s a matter of a few days - functionally, travel time to El Paso or to see my pal Ballapeno in San Antonio.
On the injury front, Tatis used the suspension to have the screw removed from his wrist and the labrum repaired in hopes he would stop dislocating the shoulder. Both appear to have been successful. Tatis is hitting well though he’s not showing a lot of power. We don’t have good measurements of things like exit velocity on him, but I’m told by sources that “he’s not far off.” We’ll see more when he makes his first dive at short or in the outfield later this season.
RHYS HOSKINS, 1B PHI (sprained knee)
Most of the info on Hoskins was in yesterday’s UTK Flash, but as feared, Hoskins has a sprained ACL. The Phillies didn’t give details on the degree/grade on the sprain, but surgery sounds likely. A standard reconstruction would cost Hoskins the season, but would be considered very similar to the Ronald Acuna Jr injury and recovery. We’ve seen several players over the past few years in baseball, though it remains an unusual injury. In other sports, especially football (both kinds), it’s common and considered almost routine at this stage.
Hoskins’ non-contact injury is a common mechanism as well, so there’s no reason to think that there’s any reason he can’t come back. The problem for the Phillies is losing a big bat, especially one that was expected to support the team in part while Bryce Harper is closing the rehab on his Tommy John. Given the competitive division, it will be interesting to see whether the Phillies fill the position from within or look to an acquisition, given the aggressiveness of the Phillies ownership.
The next step for Hoskins is a second opinion. This is common and is often part of the surgical selection. Again, there’s little doubt that surgery will be necessary, so this consult isn’t likely the kind where a yes/no decision will be made, nor that he’s seeking some novel treatment. Given the length and timing of the rehab, there’s no rush to have the surgery to get him back either.
Apologies for the pair of Flash emails yesterday. The downside of email newsletters is you can’t reach in to correct something as you would with a web site. It was a simple error, but a regrettable one so I felt the second correction email was necessary.
RANGER SUAREZ, SP PHI (strained forearm)