Pitching Injuries Keep Piling Up Across Major League Baseball

Lucas Giolito signed a 2-year, $38.5 million contract with the Boston Red Sox ahead of the 2024 season. He threw his first pitch for Boston on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Tony Gonsolin made his first start in the big leagues in 631 days on Wednesday.

Tyler Glasnow signed a 5-year, $136.6 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, also ahead of the 2024 season. He's thrown just 152 innings since, not one of which was in the 2024 postseason or World Series. Blake Snell signed a 5-year, $182 million contract with Los Angeles ahead of the 2025 season. Through the first month of the season, he's pitched nine innings.

Gerrit Cole is signed through 2028. He's going to miss the entire season. 

Spencer Strider missed all of 2024 recovering from surgery, made one start and went back on the injured list. Promising young Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez is on the 60-day IL, with a best-case scenario seeing him return in June. Cubs starter Justin Steele is out for the season with an arm injury. 

And coaches within the game are not happy about it.

LOS ANGELES - Blake Snell #7 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts as he walks to the dugout at the end of the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium on April 2, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Dodgers Coaches Frustrated By Continued Pitching Injuries

The Athletic spoke to Dodgers' pitching coach Mark Prior, who detailed how everyone in the game is frustrated by the amount of injuries we're seeing in the modern version of baseball.

"It’s not a good quality of life," Prior said earlier this week ahead of the second bullpen game of the year for the Dodgers. "For anybody."

"I’ve been around for, I hate to say it now, 23, 24 years," Prior said. "Unfortunately, injuries (are) still in the game at a prevalent (level), at a high level. I wish it wasn’t, but it’s an unfortunate side of the game."

As far as solutions, the Dodgers have explored trying to determine the best way to integrate younger pitchers into the major league level.

"When they get here to this level, sometimes they get used in different roles, and they get taxed in different ways that they might not be accustomed to," Prior said. "So that’s one thing that we’ve looked into, is trying to prepare, whether they’re completely relievers coming up, or they’re starters turned relievers. All those things matter, kind of like you’re on-ramping what it’s like.

"Because when you get up here, things change, and they change very drastically. A guy might be pitching every sixth day down there; all of a sudden, you’re expected to pitch multiple innings. … That takes time to acclimate, for your body to figure out, ‘How do I do this on a daily basis,’ not just that one time."

Prior also explained that there's little "pinpointed" as to an overarching cause, with personal histories seemingly more important. 

"I think every case is different, but nothing is pinpointed exactly," he said, "because I do think you could look into everybody’s timeline, their personal history, and how they get to certain points and how they get used when they get here, versus the way they’ve been used.

"Some of that matters, and some of it’s just unfortunate. You know, just bad luck. Nothing specific. And again, it’s something as an organization, we’ve been trying to wrap our head around. … It’s not (good) for the players who suffer the injuries. Doesn’t help us operate at an optimal level as a ballclub. And it’s something (where) we went through a stretch where we were very fortunate on the health front, and unfortunately, these last couple years, it hasn’t been that way."

It's frustrating as a fan, seeing starting pitchers incessantly hurt. It's frustrating for players, who spend years of their career rehabbing. It's frustrating for teams, who spend exorbitant sums of money on starters, only to see them miss extended periods of time. 

But it doesn't seem like anyone's any closer to having an idea of how to fix it. Unfortunately, we just all might have to get used to it.