Braves ace Spender Strider will miss the rest of the season as another one of MLB’s top pitchers has fallen victim to the growing epidemic of arm surgeries in the pitch-clock era.
Strider underwent surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow with internal brace, the Braves announced Saturday. The surgery was performed Friday by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Tex.
Strider led the majors in wins (20) and strikeouts (281) while pitching to a 3.86 ERA in 186 2/3 innings in 2023, but he barely got out of the gates in what would have been his third full MLB season.
He struck out 12 but allowed seven runs in nine innings over what will be his only two starts.
Spencer Strider will miss the rest of the season for the Braves. Getty Images The flame-throwing 25-year-old right-hander reported feeling elbow discomfort during an abbreviated outing on April 5. His velocity was noticeably down.
One day later, Braves manager Brian Snitker said that what the MRI showed “wasn’t good.” Within a week, Strider was under the knife.
Strider’s injury not only changes the landscape of the National League – who can challenge the Dodgers? – but opens a window for the Mets and Phillies atop the NL East.
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On a larger scale, Strider’s injury also continues an alarming early-season trend of aces on the shelf.
Strider joins the Guardians’ Shane Bieber, Red Sox’ Lucas Giolito, Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the Marlin’s duo of Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez as pitchers who are out for the season.
The list could grow because several other high-end starters are sidelined with elbow or shoulder injuries and their return timelines are murky: the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, Mets’ Kodai Senga, Astros’ Justin Verlander, Mariners’ Robbie Ray, Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, Brewers’ Brandon Woodruff, Diamondbacks’ Eduardo Rodriguez and Rangers teammates Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom are not pitching.
There is a raging debate over whether MLB’s implementation of a pitch clock is to blame. Or is it mere coincidence and higher velocity and spin rates are at the root of the issue?
MLB’s recent dismissal of the pitch clock as a potential cause angered players like Cole.
“It’s shortsighted,” said Cole, a former member of the players’ union’s eight-person subcommittee. “We are going to really understand the effects of what the pitch clock is maybe five years down the road, but to dismiss it out of hand, I didn’t think that was helpful to the situation.”
Braves ace Spencer Strider Getty Images Cole’s former Astros teammate Verlander had a different take, claiming “it would be easiest to blame the pitch clock.”
“Everybody [is] throwing as hard as they possibly can and spinning the ball as hard as they possibly can,” Verlander said, attributing that as the pitchers’ response to MLB’s change in baseballs a few years ago that allowed more batters to put up big home run totals.
The Braves, whose ace becomes Max Fried, need to pivot long before the debate is settled.
“[Strider] is so dedicated to his craft,” Snitker said recently. “He loves everything about this. He does everything right from being a great teammate to just all the dedication. I really hate this for him because he enjoys it so much.”
