Misconceptions of Tommy John Surgery

Tommy John / Roger Dewitt / Wikimedia

In the past decade there has been a recent spike in the amount of players having Tommy John surgery. Last year 19 MLB pitchers alone had this surgery. As the demand for faster pitchers increase, the amount of surgeries have increased as well. 

MLB teams expect fast hard speeds consistently from their pitchers. As the pitchers throw harder the bigger possibility of their UCL tearing. To repair this doctors remove a ligament from either a hamstring or forearm and replace the torn UCL.

The human arm is not designed to throw a ball overhead at 90 mph. This stress is equivalent to holding a 12-pound bowling ball. Even at amateur level players are expected to pitch faster and harder because thats what professional leagues expect.

“That means more young pitchers must throw more, trainer harder, and test the limits of their own health more often,” former MLB pitcher Dirk Hayhurst wrote in a 2014 SportsonEarth article.

These limits that are being pushed by these young athletes are the root causes of this surgery. Preventing this surgery could be as easy as limiting their pitching. Coaches are pushing their players to throw countless pitches for consecutive games which prevents the ligament from rest and growth. Dr James Andrews, the man who developed this surgery, is giving advice to these young athletes to help prevent injury.

“One coach will pitch a kid for five innings one night and then the next day the same kid will go throw five more innings for a different coach in a different game," Andrews said in a 2012 ESPN highschool article. “These pitchers should not be playing in more than one league at once. You have to rest to prevent these injuries.”

This surgery is thought to increase the speed of a pitcher’s throw. In reality players just return to their normal pitching speeds. This misconception has influenced parents wanting to have their kids obtain the surgery prior to any injury. There hasn’t been any evidence that this surgery increases the skill of any pitcher.

"It doesn't make someone faster or, well, anything," Cincinnati Reds surgeon Dr. Tim Kremchek said in a 2014 BleacherReport article. 

It is not certain that the surgery will be successful, in many cases players were forced to get a second surgery because they had injured themselves during the rehabilitation process. There is an 80-85% chance that the surgery will be successful, meanwhile if their ligament tears again the chances are as low as 40%.

This surgery has been very controversial over the past three decades. Many pitchers have been able to continue their careers from getting this surgery. They get it in hopes that their performance may increase on the field. Young athletes looking at this demand for the surgery on the pro level, influences them to want to get the surgery. These young athletes are trying to achieve what their role models achieve. In reality this surgery is more of a necessity than a privilege.

By Adib Islam and Nicholas Bohan