New information has come out that casts blame on former New York Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen for the team’s rash of pitching injuries.
The New York Mets have been a team that revolves around starting pitching ever since Sandy Alderson took the helm and carried out his blueprint for rebuilding the previously disheveled organization.
One of the most highlighted epidemics in modern sports is the increasing rate of arm injuries for pitchers throughout MLB.
Unfortunately, the Mets have not been able to keep their pitchers, let alone players, on the field over the last few seasons.
And now, after parting ways with former manager Terry Collins and former pitching coach Dan Warthen and moving on to new pitching coach Dave Eiland and new manager Mickey Callaway, it seems that the old regime may have been one of the contributing factors to the rash of pitching injuries.
The Mets will try something different to keep players on the field in 2018: https://t.co/4Jzeto4fGw
— Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) November 16, 2017
Not only will the Mets be hiring a “Director of High Performance” to oversee a more serious approach to player health, Mickey Callaway plans to have the pitchers use modern technology to attempt to preserve their arms and overall health.
“We feel we have the components, mental skills coach at the major league level, we have the physical therapist now that travels with the team,” assistant general manager John Ricco told the New York Post‘s Mike Puma. “Now the next step is somebody to oversee all that. The increase in the data and some of the new technologies that can provide you with information about the player’s current health status has also been a recent change, so you really didn’t have all this information four or five years ago.”
According to John Harper of the New York Daily News, these changes are nothing new for Callaway, who indicated that the Cleveland Indians used many of these injury-prevention methods during his time as the team’s pitching coach.
“From monitoring hydration levels of players via daily urine samples to having pitchers wear high-tech Motus sleeves during workouts to measure elbow stress to players filling out daily logs on iPads in regard to sleep and eating habits, the Indians seemed to be miles ahead of the Mets with being proactive.”
The article goes on to suggest that former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson believed in such methodologies and that Warthen was not interested in such technology.
So there you have it Mets fans. Instead of monitoring useful elbow stress information or hydration levels, Warthen preferred to have his pitchers not throw to bases in Spring Training.
I’ve detailed the poor mechanics of multiple injury-plagued Mets pitchers such as Seth Lugo, Matt Harvey, and Robert Gsellman, and how they contribute to poor results and future injury. Perhaps with better player care and monitoring these flaws can be fixed.
The hope is that this new wave of modern technology can provide the Mets pitchers and players improved health and efficiency on the field for 2018.
