Post Tommy John Surgery Return Rates in Major League Baseball
Pitchers who undergo Tommy John are viewed differently than position players who undergo Tommy John because of the different demands on their bodies at their respective positions.
Recently, there has been research about the return rate among pitchers and position players and how long these players last in Major League Baseball and it is surprisingly closer in comparison to each other.
This discussion revolves around the studies by Robert A. Jack, II and his findings in the article, Performance and Return to Sport After Tommy John Surgery Among Major League Baseball Position Players.
Tommy John surgery is a surgery involving the medial ulnar collateral ligament which is the part of the body that absorbs most of the force put on a baseball player’s arm when throwing a baseball.
The force that is put on an athlete’s arm is as much as 290 N of force generated to the elbow, equivalent to a 65 pound weight hanging from the hand pulling it backwards. This is about all the human body can handle at one time, according to The American Journal of Sports Medicine.
This study found that even though the amount stress on arms were different among these different positions, they were very comparable to each other with their respective rate of return to sport.
Rate of return is a term used to describe how players respond to surgery and whether or not they were able to return to their sport for at least one game of competition.
This research was able to provide the data for these two rate of returns at 85 percent for position players and 81 percent for pitchers. This data shows that the difference is not as drastic as most people previously considered.
Fifteen-year licensed physical therapist Steve Domzalski of Wayne State University’s staff was able to comment on some of these findings due to his history of working specifically with athletes who have this surgery.
“I feel fully confident in returning a position player back to sport faster and for a longer period of time compared to a pitcher with no complications in rehabilitating the injury,” he said.
Although experts feel confident returning a position player back to competition, data shows there was a large percentage of position change. There is only 52 percent of players who maintained the position they held pre-surgery.
Collegiate baseball player Dillon McInerney underwent Tommy John surgery of his own in 2016.
“I was playing both a fielding position and pitching before undergoing Tommy John surgery.” he said. “I can fully attest my injury to overuse because of doing both. If I was only playing one position, I strongly feel I would have returned to baseball at a faster rate.”
Dillon has now made the change to playing one position and falls in the category of people who had to change what they did on the baseball field post-surgery.