Rob Manfred Explains Why Pitchers Are 'Already Damaged Goods' by Their MLB Debuts

The pitcher-injury epidemic in MLB is an issue that commissioner Rob Manfred believes is caused in part because of how much players are throwing even before they reach the big leagues.

In an interview with The New York Times's Michael S. Schmidt, Manfred explained that pitchers are "already damaged goods" because of how they're being taught to throw at a young age:

"I think pitching injuries may be one of the most difficult problems that we have confronted. First of all, the game is getting taught in a way that emphasizes velocity and spin rate, so that by the time we get guys, they’re already damaged goods. We know that.

"You might say, well, you’ve got to just teach people. Well, here’s the thing: From a competitive perspective, it’s absolutely clear to young people that we pay for velocity and spin rate. So if you know you’re trying to get there, you’re going to do what you’ve got to do regardless. So you get injured and they fix you up and you go right back and you do it again. Under our system, because it’s basically all guaranteed money, you get paid. So the incentives there that apply on the athlete are really misdirected. They actually encourage behavior that increases injuries."

The average fastball velocity has increased nearly two full miles per hour from 2015 (92.1) to the start of the 2025 season (93.9).

In addition to pitchers throwing harder, the emphasis on spin rate with both fastballs and offspeed pitches puts more torque on the arm/elbow. The more spin a breaking ball has, the more movement it will have and be more difficult to hit.

While that can make a pitcher more effective in the short-term, the rate at which they are getting injured is alarming.

In a study conducted by MLB released in December 2024, the amount of IL stints per season for pitchers nearly doubled from 2014 to '24.

One of the key takeaways from the study found that pitchers are overworking themselves as part of their offseason training program in an attempt to optimize their stuff for the following season.

"We go from [the] season ending to offseason programs because we want to add velocity or a breaking ball. They don’t get any time off. They want to start spinning the ball and they’re never giving the arm a break," one former MLB pitcher said in the study.

From 2010 to '24, the majority of IL stints for pitchers happened between March and April and were due to elbow injuries.

Manfred alluded to the difficulty of trying to fix the issue because teams are going to pay more for pitchers who have big velocity and can rack up strikeouts.

Innings pitched is still an extremely valuable aspect, but the increased reliance on relievers shows teams are comfortable if their starter is only throwing four or five great innings and they can figure out the rest of the game from there.

The 2024 season saw just four pitchers reach the 200-inning threshold. There were 28 pitchers who hit that mark as recently as 2015.

None of this is stopping teams from dropping the bag for pitchers who have shown they can get outs efficiently. Max Fried just got an eight-year, $218 million contract from the New York Yankees, even though he's only thrown more than 100 innings four times in eight seasons entering 2025.