Brian Snitker: ‘I hate it for him’
The Atlanta Braves manager discussed the injury to Spencer Strider, but doesn’t know what can realistically be done to prevent it from happening.
“I feel really bad for him. The kid loves to compete, does everything right, loves to compete, the whole – everything.”
Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker was referring to starting pitcher Spencer Strider, who the team had just announced had suffered damage to his ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm last night and would be going in the coming days for an assessment by Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas.
When asked if there was a possibility for getting good news from the specialist, Snitker was pretty blunt. “No, I don’t think so really. I mean, the good news is he’ll get whatever it is fixed and come back and he’ll have a really good career.”
If Tommy John surgery is where this is heading for Strider, it’ll be his second, a much more daunting prognosis than getting one. Almost 40% of current major league pitchers are estimated to have had Tommy John surgery, an astronomically large number in the grand scheme of things.
And so many of those pitchers are having it earlier and earlier in their careers. If Strider does require a 2nd Tommy John surgery, he’ll not only have had to get the procedure twice, they’ll both be prior to him turning 26, something that’s hard to believe.
Snit has an idea of what’s causing the injuries. “Guys are throwing the ball harder than ever and spinning the ball more than ever.” But it’s not just how hard pitchers are throwing now, it’s when they start doing it. “The kids are playing more now, younger (and) I think pitching more, they’re throwing harder. Pitching year round, and things like that.”
But it’s also the fact that pitchers are using max effort on every pitch, which Snitker acknowledged is an issue as well.
There’s a lot of disagreement over what’s causing this increased prevalence of injuries – Strider himself pointed to the pitch clock be reduced this season way back in February, telling USA Today that when it comes to the league’s various rule changes, “all those things are making pitching harder and potentially, I think, making health more difficult to manage.”
