Last weekend, the temperature wasn’t the only thing rising at MLB parks. Trent Thornton needed help getting off the field. Elly De La Cruz vomited in the outfield, triggering a rare cameo by the grounds crew and a bleach bucket. Neither incident was framed as heat illness by team spokespeople, but if it looks like heat illness and acts like heat illness … well, here we are.
The reality is simple: baseball has a heat problem. And it’s not new but it’s getting worse.
Baseball isn’t built for heat. Long stretches of standing still under the sun, punctuated by explosive bursts of movement, is exactly the kind of workload that can cause heat illness. Add polyester uniforms, dark turf, high humidity, and travel fatigue, and you’ve got a recipe that would make any medical staff nervous.
But unlike football, where heat illness has tragically killed players at the college and high school level, prompting mandatory acclimatization periods, wet bulb monitoring, and cooling tents, baseball has largely coasted. There have been good efforts, largely from the medical staffs, but teams don’t call off games for heat. Building a dome is nice, but while those 100 degree games won’t happen in Texas, Houston, or Arizona, Kansas City and even Minneapolis were in the high-90’s this weekend.
Extreme heat isn’t a fluke. It’s the new baseline. This past week, nearly every MLB game was played in 90+ degree weather, with several cities pushing well over 100.
So what does MLB do well?
To its credit, the league has made progress. Teams often have access to cooling fans in dugouts, IV fluids are widely available postgame, and medical staffs are better educated than ever before. Some players have access to cooling sleeves or wearable sensors, while nutritionists now tweak electrolyte intake pregame based on weather.
What’s missing is visibility and leadership.
If a player collapses on the field from heat stroke, that’s not just a medical emergency. It’s a PR nightmare. MLB should be ahead of this. Instead of leaving it to each team, why not make a clear, public effort to mitigate the risks? A league-mandated visible cooling zone, something as simple as an ice tub, pop-up canopy, or misting station near the dugout, wouldn’t just help players recover. It would show the league is paying attention.
Want to set a tone? Put the tub in a visible location. Build soft barriers around it, or put it just inside the net. Let everyone see it, even if it costs a couple premium seats their space. Let players know it’s not weakness to take care of their body in 100-degree heat. Normalize cooling down the same way you normalize the weighted bat or the pine tar rag.
It’s not just about stars either. A veteran like Thornton struggling to recover draws a camera, but the minor leaguers grinding in triple-digit heat without charter flights, day-game flexibility, or elite recovery tools? They’re at just as much risk, if not more. There’s no load management when you’re chasing a call-up.
Let’s not forget everyone else - the umpires, the grounds crew, and the fans themselves. There’s no reason stadiums shouldn’t have misting stations, shaded fan zones, or staff trained to recognize signs of heat stroke.
Baseball doesn’t need a sweeping overhaul - just some smart, visible steps. Put a cold tub on the foul line. Add misting stations in dugouts. July or August could be - should be - Heat Awareness Month in MLB, the same way it has used its platform for various cancers.
Normalize cooling off. Add to the between-inning time so players can cool off on days over 90 degrees or have a “heat time out” like soccer has done. Treat heat like any other game-day factor and give players the tools to manage it.
The heat isn’t going anywhere. MLB shouldn’t wait to respond. It should lead.
On to the injuries:
CORBIN CARROLL, OF (fractured wrist)
EUGENIO SUAREZ, 3B ARZ (bruised hand)
Tom Verducci had an interesting piece about hit-by-pitch and while I think he’s right on most, I disagree with his point that most players are wearing too much armor. It wasn’t the case with Bryce Harper and it certainly wasn’t the case with Corbin Carroll, who hits the IL. I never like writing that about Cousin Corbin, especially when it means a fractured wrist will cost him six weeks or more.
So how did this get missed? It happens. If you want to know how, I keep this Travis Sawchik piece bookmarked for you to give you the full explanation. If you haven’t read it, you should, now. Despite the spate of injuries, this is a very solid, very experienced medical staff. The downside is that results count and right now, a team that was expected to contend is down their best player and their best pitcher in the midst of the season. Could that push them to sell and save? Maybe.
The D-Backs haven’t noted which bone is fractured, but it doesn’t really matter. Almost all will take the same four to eight weeks and the same concerns when he returns are in place. The treatment is what changes, but there’s been no mention of the need for surgical intervention as yet. There’s often changes in bat control and power, but they’ve been a more subtle effect in the last few years, though no one seems to know just why.
Also, Eugenio Suarez had x-rays come back negative but will miss a couple games with the bruise. #paddedglove. I’m sure they’ll re-check it, but with Carroll down, the D-Backs brought Jake McCarthy back, though Randall Grichuk is playing more outfield these days than the guy he’s always tied to. And no, Corbin’s not really my cousin. I used to always refer to new Raiders coach Pete Carroll as “Uncle Pete”, so when Corbin came up, I continued the joke.
KODAI SENGA, SP NYM (strained hamstring)
Kodai Senga is back on the mound. Ok, he’s just playing catch, but that’s a nice step given his hamstring strain. I like that the Mets are being a bit innovative here rather than just doing the standard progression. Letting his hamstring work on the slope is more akin to what he’ll need to do soon enough. Soon enough could be pretty soon.
Senga’s been able to do things like this to keep up his chronic workload, so there’s every chance that when he is ready to come back, he could step right back into the rotation, albeit with some limits at first. The build would come, helping the Mets and not the Syracuse Mets, which again is smart. Senga is due for an exam on Friday, and we could see things accelerate if that goes well, as expected.
As with everything for the next week or so, the schedule becomes a bit of an issue - does a team bring someone back just to have the ASB get in the way? Research has shown that rest isn’t always a good thing and that our knowledge of chronic workload, spotty as it is with plenty of questions left to answer, might make programming a return after the break a better and smarter way to go. That said, I would not be at all surprised to see him back and getting a couple starts in before the break.