Tommy John surgery isn’t an overnight epidemic for baseball players - it’s been a build up over 50 years with peak occurrences from 2014 to 2019 and a one year surge again in 2021. The 2021 jump may be due to the inactivity from the shortened MLB season or no minor league season at all in 2020.
The number of TJ surgeries in the minor/major leagues has decreased the past two full seasons (2022 & 2023) according to a spreadsheet tracked by FanGraphs analyst Jon Roegele. Maybe that’s due to new learnings and applications.
While I agree it’s an ongoing and significant concern - it’s certainly nothing new nor trending upwards according to this data base. Here are the numbers by year.
2024 : 20
2023 : 94
2022 : 104
2021 : 161
2020 : 82
2019 : 136
2018 : 146
2017 : 160
2016 : 158
2015 : 171
2014 : 157
2013 : 112
2012 : 116
2011 : 80
2010 : 80
2009 : 76
2008 : 52
2007 : 72
2006 : 54
2005 : 55
2004 : 47
2003 : 47
2002 : 35
2001 : 33
2000 : 29
1974 to 1999 : 147
Average from 1974 to 1999 : 6
Average from 2000 to 2009 : 50
Average from 2010 to 2019 : 131
Average from 2020 to 2023 : 110 (discounted by 2020 short season)
Average from 2021 to 2023 : 120
Total from 1974 to 2023 : 2,004
50 year average (1974 to 2023) : 40
Just some data is all
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
Source : Fangraphs : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1gQujXQQGOVNaiuwSN680Hq-FDVsCwvN-3AazykOBON0/htmlview
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