It was a terrific Friday night in an otherwise horrible season for the Chicago White Sox. On their way to one of the worst seasons in Major League Baseball history, certainly the worst in the expansion era, there was a gleaming view of the future. Yeah, they lost again, but oh that young pitcher confusing the opposition with his left handed deliveries. Garrett Crochet was almost unhittable.
With the 4th inning in the books, Crochet was rolling, he allowed one hit, didn’t walk a batter and had struck out eight. He had thrown just 52 pitches but he was done for the night and by all reports even with another possible start in front of him, also done for the season. The quick hook was just another in how the White Sox have handled him since he threw 93 pitches vs the Marlins back in early July. Since then in 13 starts he has pitched no more than 4 innings, throwing no more than 77 pitches, the last 6 between 51 and 57 pitches. The hope of course is that this will help keep him healthy, but will it?
Major League teams have tried everything to no avail in trying to keep pitchers from getting hurt, It doesn’t seem to work, no matter how old they are or how long they’ve been around, pitchers get hurt.
Justin Klawans of The Week reported in April:
“Overall, out of the 166 players who began this season on an MLB team’s injured list, 132 were pitchers — nearly 80%.”
Pirates young ace was held back as well
Paul Skenes of the Pirates has burst onto the baseball scene with a spectacular combination of fastballs that touch 102 MPH, and a knee buckling slider that grades out as top notch as well. He was the first pick in the draft, deemed MLB ready, which he has clearly shown, but the Pirates started him off in the minors.
By the end of April Paul had made 6 pro starts and allowed one earned run but the Bucs had limited him to just 23 innings, less than 4 a game. They finally let him go 6 on April 30th, back to 4 1/3 in his next before they mercifully finally called him up to the majors which he started dominating from his first pitch. On July 11th they pulled him much to fans chagrin with a no hitter after 7 innings having hit his limit that day of 99 pitches, but he has at least for now, made it to the end of the 2024 season healthy.
Long time Marlins pitching injury woes
The Miami Marlins have been unable to keep an array of great young pitchers healthy. From Pablo Lopez in the past to Max Meyer currently, The list includes Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara who missed all of the 2024 season and Sixto Sanchez, a top prospect who will never reach his potential now. They limited 18-20 year old Eury Perez to about 4 innings in his 46 minor league starts before his terrific 2023 MLB debut, but he blew out his arm in spring training this year anyway.
Marlins top prospect Max Meyer started the season in the majors, looked great and was sent back to the minors, to limit his innings, pitched poorly there, was brought back, pitched poorly again and promptly got hurt for a second time in his career. The end is not near, nor is the answer on how to stop all of this.
