Currently-hurt Cubs pitcher speaks out about rise in pitcher injuries

The Chicago Cubs are one of many teams dealing with pitching injuries early in the 2024 campaign. Not only did they just lose one of their key relievers, Julian Merryweather, to injury, but they also lost their ace, Justin Steele, who suffered a hamstring strain in his first start of the season.

To make matters worse, those aren't the only key injuries that the Cubs have had to deal with when looking at their pitching. Jameson Taillon, a pitcher who signed a four-year contract last offseason, suffered a back injury in spring training.

With pitching injuries running wild to start this season, the currently injured Taillon gave his take as to why injuries have and will continue to increase.

Jameson Taillon gives his take on the meteoric rise of pitcher injuries

Here's what Taillon had to say on X (formerly known as Twitter).

With how good hitters are, pitchers need to do whatever they can to stay one step ahead. With how good pitchers are, those in competition must work as hard as they can to continue to improve. This doesn't only mean improving pitches, but also improving velocity.

As Taillon notes, players are hyper-aware of what teams value. Teams value strikeouts. There's no denying that. With that in mind, pitchers are focusing solely on improving their stuff and getting opponents to swing and miss to the point where they're wearing out their arms.

Instead of focusing on simply staying healthy, pitchers feel as if they need to put maximum effort into each and every pitch and are doing whatever they can to throw harder fastballs and sharper breaking balls. While that has resulted in some nasty pitches, we've also seen pitchers get hurt at an alarming rate, especially lately.

Taillon hits the nail on the head here saying that pitchers really have no choice but to keep on trying to optimize every last thing. if they don't maximize their stuff, organizations won't value them. There's more risk, but that risk is worthwhile given the alternative.

What's especially frustrating is it's unclear how this can get better without teams changing how they value pitchers. If they value stuff the most, pitcher injuries will still be extremely prevalent.