Batting Around: What -- if anything -- can MLB do to fix or stem the rash of pitcher injuries?

Throughout the season the CBS Sports MLBexpertswill bringyou aweekly Batting Aroundroundtablebreakingdownprettymuchanything. The latest news, a historical question,thoughts about thefuture ofbaseball,allsortsof stuff. Last week we picked between MLB's Florida franchises. This week we're going to tackle the pitching injury epidemic.

Are there any steps MLB should take to confront pitching injuries?

R.J. Anderson: It depends on what you think is the root cause behind these injuries. Ifit's the pitch clock, they can adjust that. If it's the max-effortstyle of pitching, that's more difficult to legislate. I suppose whatyou can do is limit the amount of pitchers allowed on an active roster.That may force pitchers (and teams) to alter their approach. Now, thecatch is that you're probably going to have some grim times until thoseadjustments are made. But I don't know that there's a quick fix here,not when the incentives all point toward the current approach. My guessis that it's a combination of factors and that makes it even moredifficult to curb from the league's point of view.

Dayn Perry: I don't have a lot of good answers to this. I would liketo see stricter roster limits on the number of pitchers teams can carryon the active roster. Part of my motivation for this is to get more length outof starters and return them to their status as "main character of agiven game." However, this also would perhaps give teams incentive todevelop/seek out those capable of bulk relief detail as opposed tomaxed-out velocity for shorter stints. Ultimately, though, I think thede-emphasis of throwing as hard as you can at all times has to start atthe lower levels, all the way down to youth baseball. Undertaking thatwould be difficult, hard to control, and take years to yield anyresults. 

Matt Snyder: My short answer is I don't have the first damn clue. 

Ireally don't think the pitch clock is the main culprit, as pitcherinjuries were already on the rise for the last several decades. It's notlike we have a control group to see if the clock itself caused injuries(that is: A 2023 version of Gerrit Cole with the pitch clock vs. the2023 version of Gerrit Cole without it, so we could see if both or onlythe pitch clock version got hurt this spring). 

I tend tobelieve the main issue is the pressure that is put on the arms bypitchers throwing so hard, repeatedly. They, collectively, throw harderthan ever and that remains the case every single season. Some arms (suchas Nolan Ryan in the past) are better built to withstand thesepressures than others, but in general the human body just can't takethis. How could you possibly put rules on throwing hard? 

Plus,nowadays, players are rewarded for maxing out on every pitch and I justdon't have any idea how that could possibly be solved with any sort oflegislation -- certainly not at the big-league level or even in theminors, as the problem likely starts with the pitchers as kids. 

Howdo you possibly disincentivize overthrowing in kids? Point them tosomeone like Matt Harvey's career trajectory? Harvey was a rock star fora short bit, started the All-Star Game, pitched in the World Series andmade over $28 million in his career. I'm sure tons of parents livingvicariously through their children would throw up the stop sign at thatpath, right? C'mon. 

I just have no idea. I'm lost. 

Mike Axisa: There's no easy answer because we don't know what the root cause is. It's not one thing, it's a combination of things, with the emphasis on velocity and spin (and thus max effort pitching) likely the biggest factor. I think any solution will have to start at the amateur level. High school and college kids train year-round now, and they come into pro ball with more wear and tear on their arms than anyone that young should have. This is a long-term concern that requires a long-term solution, not Band-Aids. The sport inherently rewards things that are bad for the arm (velocity, spin, etc.) and I just have no idea how you solve a problem when one of the primary causes lies in the sport's foundations. I don't know what MLB can do. This is something MLB and the MLBPA need to work together to address rather than be their usual adversarial selves.