Last week, Yankees fans held their breaths when it was revealed that their ace, Masahiro Tanaka, was going to miss his next start due to a hamstring strain. He sustained the injury while running bases during a game against their crosstown rival Mets.
Although it now looks like the injury was minor and Tanaka should return in time for the postseason, the scare is just the latest example of the questionable fitness of MLB pitchers.
It’s simple: professional athletes should not be straining hamstrings while running at a moderate speed.
Tanaka joins a long list of pitchers who have hurt themselves during a rare foray around the base paths. Because he competes in the American League with the designated hitter, Tanaka rarely even gets the chance to bat, much less run the bases, which surely contributed to his problem.
While running a lot may not be a major requirement to be a pitcher, it is still just about guaranteed that at some point, pitchers are going to have to run, whether on the bases or in the field. Unfortunately, these instances are rare enough that it seems pitchers have completely neglected training for this aspect of the game, which is why we see injuries like Tanaka’s.
Now, not all injuries that pitchers sustain on the bases are a sign of shoddy fitness. Some are just freak accidents. One of the most memorable came in 2008 when another Yankee hurler, Chien-Ming Wang, hurt his foot rounding third base, an injury that would cause him to change his pitching mechanics. This ultimately led to shoulder problems and prevented him from ever returning to his place as one of the best starters in baseball.
Tanaka’s injury, on the other hand, was probably one of the most preventable injuries in baseball. Strained hamstrings are a sign of tight, weak and immobile muscles, issues that really shouldn’t be affecting most professional athletes, who make a living with their bodies and should be doing whatever necessary to address physical issues like these.
Perhaps the blame doesn’t completely lie with Tanaka and other pitchers, however. There seems to be hardly any public scrutiny about these ailments, and there are no indications that teams have pressured their players to make sure such preventable injuries are not occurring.
Quite frankly, there needs to be a culture change in baseball. For as much as we marvel at the physical feats these athletes make look easy, until we stop giving them a free pass when it comes to maintaining a reasonable level of health and fitness, these injuries will only continue to occur. And, while the Yankees were fortunate when it turned out Tanaka’s strain was only minor, tempting fate will only go so far before their luck runs out.
Shapiro is a member of the class of 2016.
