Is a Six Man Rotation Imminent for MLB?

Does it make sense for MLB to transition to a six man rotation instead of the current five man rotation? With the injury trend increasing, it just might.

With the MLB season approaching quickly, it is time again to wonder what big name pitchers will need Tommy John surgery in 2016. Over the past few years, many key pitchers have fallen victim to this procedure, including the likes of Jose Fernandez, Yu Darvish and Matt Harvey.

Since the conclusion of the 2011 season, there have been 125 major league players that have required the surgery. On top of this, are many pitchers that have sustained an injury to their Ulnar Collateral Ligament in their throwing arm and may well need the surgery sometime in the future, such as Masahiro Tanaka.  With so many players getting injured, measures are already in place to attempt to help end this pandemic of injuries.

In recent years, the solution seems to lie in decreasing the amount of innings and/or pitches a pitcher throws in a season. Despite this, there have still been years, such as 2012, where 40 or more players required the surgical procedure to continue their baseball careers.

Some players have even undergone this procedure multiple times in their careers, such as Joakim Soria or Brian Wilson. The weirdest part about these pitchers, as well, is that they are relievers. Why would the relievers, who naturally throw less innings and less pitches than the starters, fall prey to this injury multiple times?

One logical conclusion that could be drawn is simply the limitation on innings and pitches for the starters puts more pressure on the relievers to take on more innings and more pitches. As well, there is such a thing as high pressure pitches. These are simply pitches that need to be thrown more precisely and faster during times of intensity in a game, such as a bases-loaded jam in a tie game. A pitcher may not be putting as much stress on their body during low pressure innings because they know that each pitch does not mean as much if they are winning a game by a large margin.

Besides the amount of high leverage pitches, the body needs time to heal between pitching appearances. Currently in the Japanese baseball leagues, starting pitchers throw about every seven days, allowing their body more time to heal in between starts. Take Masahiro Tanaka as an example. During his time in Japan, he would throw once every six or seven days in a game. In that time period, he had very little injury drama. Within the first year of coming to MLB, he’s dealt with a UCL injury that is still present to this day, though he has evaded surgery thus far.

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The entire motion of pitching a baseball brings about a lot of stress on the throwing arm, especially with nearly all of these guys throwing in the 90s and some even touching 100 mph. Add on to this that they are starting every 5th game and throwing a bullpen session around halfway between starts, there is very little time off for these pitchers during the brutally long MLB season.

Lets look at the average pitcher’s schedule in MLB for a quick second. They usually report to camp around middle to late February. They start throwing bullpen sessions around this same time. Then, they pitch through spring training and the regular season, taking them to the end of September or early October.

Let’s say their team makes the playoffs and wins the World Series. That is taking them through the end of October or early November. As well, if they are the ace of their pitching staff, they may be working off less rest as we usually see in the playoffs with the rotation usually slimming down to our or even three men in some cases.

Finally the offseason arrives, except players simply cannot avoid doing any baseball or baseball related activity as they know that they will lose their acquired endurance and/or muscle memory to some extent if they just stop cold turkey for an extended period. A pitcher might take a short few weeks off and then get into the weight room and on the field for practice drills for basically the entire offseason. These guys are throwing a baseball or working their throwing arm A LOT over the course of the year with minimal break times.

Fans are seeing more and more now that teams are, at the very least, considering adding a sixth man to the rotation to take the stress off of other starters. The Yankees considered by even implementing it for a short time since injuries to Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia and having Ivan Nova come back from TJ Surgery. The Mets used a six man rotation for a bit of last year as well for nearly identical reasons.

Next: Giants' Samardzija not picking his spots right now

Whether or not people think it is a good idea to go with a six man rotation, it seems to be the new trend in MLB as teams and players are trying to find out everything they can in an attempt to eliminate the Tommy John epidemic. Whether or not it will truly work is a different story, as their are numerous variables to consider.