Tommy John was a left-hander who won 288 games in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ’80s. He had great stuff and a nice smile.
These days, no one smiles when they hear someone say Tommy John.
Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction is the clinical term for the elbow procedure named after the pitcher, who was the first to undergo the surgery in 1974. Dr. Frank Jobe performed the procedure, which has reached epidemic proportions in the United States since then.
And while it has become somewhat of a rite of passage nationwide for pitchers from the high school level to the pros, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) doesn’t generally lose its top pitchers the way Major League Baseball (MLB) has in recent years.
The major league season started off this year with frontline hurlers such as Spencer Strider of the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Guardians ace Shane Bieber, and New York Yankees No. 1 hurler Gerrit Cole all going down early with elbow issues.
Many of Japan’s superstar hurlers, with little history of elbow problems, have made the jump to the majors and subsequently suffered ligament damage that required Tommy John. The list includes Los Angeles Dodgers megastar Shohei Ohtani (twice), Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Yu Darvish, to name a few.
Persistent pitcher-related injuries are hurting teams, which lose their top arms, and depriving fans of seeing the best competition.
Something needs to change.
Darvish, now with the San Diego Padres, tried to spread the word about 10 years ago among big league teams, saying starting pitchers could benefit from additional rest between games. The right-hander, who was with the Texas Rangers at the time, tossed out the notion of adding to the number of starters.
“If you really want to protect players, we should add one more spot to the starting rotation,” Darvish told the media then.
The comment mainly drew criticism at the time and was quickly rolled up like a Texas field tarp and shoved to the side.
Darvish did point out the sticking points regarding roster rules and sizes, but an addition to the rotation—or any course adjustment of this magnitude—would likely require teams to think way outside just the batter’s box.
Because teams in Japan play a 143-game schedule, there are generally no games on Mondays. That means clubs have six games per week, and a six-man rotation can carry the season with each hurler throwing about once every seven days.
That model, however, doesn’t work for the 162-game schedule in the majors and would probably be rejected on all levels, from fans and coaches to the pitchers themselves.
Still, rest is best when it comes to the health of hurlers.
“Once a week for me was hard to get used to, but it has many benefits for recovery,” former Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Rangers, and Chicago Cubs right-hander Tony Barnette told The Epoch Times.
“I was probably always suited for a bullpen role. Pitching once a week, nobody can say they aren’t given enough time to recover,” said Barnette, who is now a U.S.-based adviser and pro scout for the Swallows.
“It allows as close to a full recovery as one can ask for. I like the plan, and I think MLB would use it if they worked under the same roster parameters as NPB,” he added.
Therein lies one of the biggest hurdles. The roster limitations and league rules would require major changes for the major leagues.
NPB clubs can use their players’ teams like chess pieces, moving them up to the top team and down to the minors—for a minimum of 10 days—at any moment because of injury or poor performance. The players can be reinstated without impunity to the player or the club. In addition, the roster, stated simply, features 29 actives on game day, as opposed to 26 in MLB.
Big league teams are also limited in the number of times they can send major league-level players to the minors before said player is out of options. Those with physical ailments are required to be placed on the injured list.
“The minor league system also helps in Japan, as being sent down for a 10-day bump isn’t as unsettling as the IL system in the States [because] the roster move doesn’t have implications beyond the simplicity of taking Player A off the roster and replacing him with Player B for the time it takes Player A to return,” Barnette said.
He also said NPB teams tend to focus more on the health of their pitchers.
“Japanese clubs have consistently put an emphasis on having fully staffed training rooms,” he said. “Players are encouraged to hang out in and pursue treatment.”
Because of that, NPB pitchers don’t generally suffer from a rash of elbow problems, and there is certainly nothing comparable to the rate of MLB hurlers, according to a prominent doctor.
“In Japan, for several years now, we’ve been conducting screenings from a young age and providing training for coaches, as well as introducing pitch count limits, to address baseball injuries,” Japan-based Dr. Kozo Furushima said in an email.
“As a result, the incidence of Tommy John surgery during youth has decreased.
“Currently, it’s college students who are most frequently affected. However, the numbers are lower than they were a decade ago in Japan. I believe that the incidence in Nippon Professional Baseball has significantly reduced compared to before,” he wrote.
Japan has won the World Baseball Classic thrice and has its share of superstars and a championship resume. Perhaps NPB is doing something right that the big leagues can borrow.
It might be time for MLB to throw itself a curve.
