Clark: Clubs ‘blowing out’ pitchers with max usage

LOS ANGELES — MLBPA executive director Tony Clark expressed concerns on Friday about how pitchers are being used in today’s game, putting the onus on teams to keep them healthy.

“The conversations that we’ve had with our players have suggested that unless or until you draw a line in the sand and force change, that the decision makers on any one particular team are going to continue to make the decisions that they’re making, which is have pitchers — starting and relievers — max-effort for the period of time that they can have them,” Clark said on the field at Dodger Stadium before Game 1 of the World Series.

“As soon as they seem to run out of gas, as the data suggests that they’re going to, recycle them out and to burn out another pitcher.”

With the reduced prominence of starting pitchers and the increase in pitching injuries, the issue is a concern for the league as well. MLB has been studying the issue all season and hopes to implement the results to help reduce the number of injuries.

Clark believes teams need to have a role in it as well.

“Players are doing what it is they are being told they should do.” Clark said. “If players were told, as they were the first 150 years the league was in existence, that the value was at quality start and pitching six innings or pitching deep in the game … then that’s what players are going to do. Clubs are telling players that that’s not the value proposition anymore, and thus players are doing what it is that’s being requested of them.”

More refined training habits have helped increase fastball velocity over the past decade, leading to higher strikeout totals and more injuries. Tommy John surgery has become more common for pitchers, with some having the procedure multiple times. The league has even flirted with incentive-laden ways to address the issue, but Clark believes teams are going to do what it takes to win — hence, urging max-effort over efficiency.

“Developing starting pitching, having strong starting pitching — that historically has been the value proposition for 150 years — has been changed,” he said. “So that’s until the decision-makers determine that blowing out pitchers day in and day out as a result of how they’re using them or what they’re requiring of them is no longer the best way to treat their players, we’ll see a change absent.”

Clark also expressed satisfaction that the A’s stadium in Sacramento will have a grass field to reduce the risk of injury during the hot summer months while the MLBPA is in wait-and-see mode when it comes to the damage to Tropicana Field due to Hurricane Milton. If the Rays can’t play there in 2025, Clark wants to make sure they’re in a safe environment at a spring or minor league facility.

“I think it starts with the playing surface and the safety of the ballpark itself,” Clark said. “Ensuring that you can get the work done that you need to get done and that the surface is reflective and the ballpark is reflective of major league standards.”

It has not yet been determined if Tropicana Field will be playable next season.