Under The Knife 8/24/22
Showcasing the Injuries
Eric Cressey had the details of a troubling study:
What’s needed is for the travel/showcase industry to have some accountability. While I don’t expect them to raise their own costs, there’s an advantage to be had if they can make it safer for their pitchers. This is where MLB’s PitchSmart program was supposed to make a difference. Instead, it pushed top players into programs that do not even nod to player safety or limitations.
It could take that leadership back and help the game. It needs the talent pipeline, now more than ever, especially with the kind of injury and participation numbers we’re seeing post-pandemic. Grants allowing companies to institute best practices, hire Athletic Trainers to be at tournaments, and other safety monitoring would be a good start. Add in some sticks to those carrots, like saying that scouts won’t come to tournaments that don’t follow guidelines, would add even more incentive. (Yes, I know with video having scouts in attendance isn’t a big deal, but it’s the perception.)
Then again, parents could do the right thing and not put their own children in danger. That would require education and more incentives for them to do those things than the ones they think will get their kids in front of the people with contracts and scholarships. Studies only go so far. It’s time for MLB to lead. Far past it, actually. For now, let’s get to the injuries:
WALKER BUEHLER, SP LAD (sprained elbow/strained forearm)
Walker Buehler had his second Tommy John surgery yesterday. Dr. Neal ElAttrache - who also did his first back in 2015 just after Buehler was drafted by the Dodgers - looked inside his elbow and saw too much damage, then reconstructed the elbow using the technique pioneered by longtime Dodgers doctor Dr. Frank Jobe. Unfortunately, ElAttrache had to do more as well, repairing the flexor tendon and cleaning up some debris in the joint space.
The surgery will require a standard Tommy John rehab, which is at about 14-16 months currently (and still too long, in my opinion.) Paired surgeries like these don’t have any worse recovery rate, though it’s not a large sample, thankfully. Given the timing, Buehler is likely to miss all of 2023, meaning his rehab time will functionally be closer to 20 months because of how the baseball calendar falls. There’s no reason to think Buehler won’t return at a high level, given the exceptionally high return-to-level rate of this surgery.
Jon Roegele, the absolute legend who keeps track of Tommy John data, pointed out that this is likely the first major league level revision (second Tommy John) for an ElAttrache patient. There’s a far smaller sample size here, so I’m not sure what we can learn beyond an interesting data point. As with Buehler, the number of players having Tommy John at younger ages ups the risk of revision. We’ll see more of these unless we solve the issues that cause the problem in the first place and nearly fifty years after Dr. Jobe’s miracle, we’re no closer.