Was Jose Fernandez’s elbow injury precipitated by thigh injury?
By Hayden Kane
It is the year of Tommy John surgery. It is considered by many people to officially be an epidemic. With that alarming trend have come extensive efforts to identify the cause of so many elbow injuries to young pitchers.
The theory offered by most is that overuse at a young age, long before any of these pitchers reach the big leagues, is the cause of these issues. But according to Jose Fernandez‘s attorney, that explanation might not apply to the electric Miami Marlins ace.
"Jose Fernandez’s arm injury was precipitated by a chain reaction of events that began when a line drive struck him in the thigh in his next-to-last game, according to the pitcher’s friend and attorney.That ‘prompted a completely unanticipated change in delivery which neither the staff nor his coaches could discern,’ culminating in a ‘traumatic’ arm injury when Fernandez pitched next on May 9 in San Diego, said his Tampa-based attorney, Ralph Fernandez, in a statement that was released Friday after the pitcher underwent Tommy John surgery in Los Angeles.”"
Manager Mike Redmond was not ready to jump on board with this explanation, though that is not surprising given the pressure on these teams to manager the workloads of their young studs and try to keep them healthy. That said, this theory is not completely without merit because the questionable course of youth baseball leagues does not necessarily apply to Fernandez.
Whatever the case, baseball is without one of its most entertaining stars for the remainder of the 2014 season.