Max Scherzer makes bold claim about uptick in pitcher injuries

“Both of them are saying the same thing: that they saw an uptick in severity,” Scherzer said. “It makes you start scratching your head. What’s unique to 2023 here? When you make the game go faster, part of the thing is, as a pitcher, I lived it. Your form just gets fatigued faster. For starting pitchers that are trying to pitch 100 pitches, you’re going through that fatigue, you’re overgripping the baseball to try to combat that fatigue, and that’s a very plausible reason for the severity of the elbow injuries.”

Scherzer said there were other factors at play, but certainly pinned the majority of his claims on the pitch clock speeding up pitchers.

Whether true or not, the league would want to see more than one year of evidence to determine whether this is the actual root cause of an issue for pitchers. The clock has been praised by fans, and the league will not want to see any big changes to it.

Scherzer himself battled a couple injuries in 2023, though none related to his elbow. He has been a consistent critic of the pitch clock, arguing that its restrictions are too rigid.