sport news MLB Players Association blames pitch clock for raft of elbow injuries and slam ... trends now
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The head of Major League Baseball's players' association believes a shorter pitch clock has contributed to a series of pitcher injuries at the start of the 2024 season.
Cleveland's Shane Bieber, Atlanta's Spencer Strider, and the New York Yankees' Jonathan Loaisiga are just the latest in a raft of pitchers suffering elbow injuries, with Miami's Eury Perez and Oakland's Trevor Gott also afflicted in the opening week.
'Despite unanimous player opposition and significant concerns regarding health and safety, the commissioner´s office reduced the length of the pitch clock last December, just one season removed from imposing the most significant rule change in decades,' union executive director Tony Clark said Saturday night in a statement.
'Since then, our concerns about the health impacts of reduced recovery time have only intensified,' Clark added. 'The league's unwillingness thus far to acknowledge or study the effects of these profound changes is an unprecedented threat to our game and its most valuable asset - the players.'
In response, Major League Baseball said: 'This statement ignores the empirical evidence and much more significant long-term trend, over multiple
