We’re Pushing Arms to the Limits: The Alarming Trend of Youth Baseball Injuries

Baseball, both at the professional and youth levels, is experiencing a significant increase in arm injuries. Over the last week, MLB star pitchers Spencer Strider and Shane Bieber have been added to the long list of pitchers needing Tommy John surgery. However, this issue extends far beyond the major leagues.

Dr. James Andrews, a leading expert in sports injuries, highlights a disturbing shift that has occurred since the year 2000. “Back in those days, I did about eight or nine Tommy Johns per year in high school-aged and younger. The large majority of Tommy Johns were at the Major League level, then the Minor League level, then the college level, and then just a handful of high school kids,” Andrews explains. “In today’s situation, the whole thing is flip-flopped. The largest number is youth baseball. They’ve surpassed what’s being done in the Major Leagues. That’s a terrible situation.”

Why is this happening? Andrews suggests that the obsession with velocity and spin at the youth level is a significant contributor. “These kids are throwing 90 mph their junior year of high school,” he says. “The ligament itself can’t withstand that kind of force. We’ve learned in our research lab that baseball is a development sport. The Tommy John ligament matures at about age 26. In high school, the red line where the forces go beyond the tensile properties of the ligament is about 80 mph.”

So, what’s the game plan? Should we just tell our young players not to throw hard or spin curveballs? Not exactly.

While we have limited control over the inherent desires of players to excel, we do have influence in other critical areas: their throwing mechanics, how they ramp up to throwing with maximum effort, and, most importantly, their volume of throwing.

As parents and coaches, we have a significant responsibility in how much our kids throw:

• Allowing them to throw 85 pitches on a day of rest?
• Playing 5 games in a single travel ball weekend?
• Pitching on back-to-back days?
• Taking the mound in games after a week or two without throwing?
• Engaging in year-round play?

Statistics reveal that kids who play more than 8 months a year are five times more likely to suffer a catastrophic arm injury. The ball is in your court, and as a parent and a coach, you need to decide if pushing your player’s arm to the limit at the youth level is worth the risk of them undergoing Tommy John surgery as a teen or college player.

Here’s my rule of thumb: if they aren’t doing it in Major League Baseball, we shouldn’t be doing it in youth baseball. Right now, we’re pushing young arms harder than professional arms, and there’s an overwhelming body of evidence supporting this concern.

Let’s make smarter choices to protect our young athletes’ futures.