Freshman pitcher Oregon State overused to win championship needs Tommy John surgery

The freshman pitcher whom Oregon State rode to a championship last year needs Tommy John surgery.

Kevin Abel told reporters on Tuesday night that he will need to undergo the reconstructive operation. Abel had only thrown 16.1 innings for the Beavers this season and hadn’t pitched since March 1. The team had been mostly mum about his issues, saying only that he had a back injury.

Then on Tuesday, Abel shared the news about his surgery and said he had been seeking several opinions before deciding to undergo the operation. He also made sure to say nobody was to blame for his injury.

“It’s no one’s fault,” Abel said in a video shared by Grant Stepanek. “A lot of people are going to place blame on someone, and it’s just baseball … there’s no warranties, there’s no guarantees in this game. It’s just baseball, it happens.”

Kevin Abel announced after the game tonight that he needs to have Tommy John surgery @BeaverBaseball pic.twitter.com/ctgiIeOUhb

— Grant Stepanek (@GrantStepanek) April 10, 2019

Abel is being a good team player and saying the right things. Maybe nobody is to blame. But I can tell you the way things went during the College World Series last year did not help.

Abel became the first pitcher to ever win four games at the College World Series. Part of the reason for that is because most pitchers aren’t asked to pitch as much as he was.

During the College World Series, Abel pitched three times in a six-day span, including two starts in high-pressure elimination games. He threw a total of 247 pitches during that six-day span.

– 95 pitches in a win over Mississippi State on Saturday, June 23 to reach the CWS finals against Arkansas
– 23 pitches during an inning of relief against Arkansas on Wednesday, June 27 to keep it a 1-run game
– 129 pitches in shutout win over Arkansas on Thursday, June 28

He also threw 58 pitches in 4 innings of relief, picking up a win over Washington on June 18. All told, he pitched 21 innings and threw 305 pitches over four appearances at the College World Series, all in an 11-day span. That’s simply overuse.

You cannot expect a competitive athlete to ask out of a game or say that he doesn’t want to continue pitching. They all want the ball and want to keep going, and if they don’t, you probably don’t want them on your team. That’s why it’s up to the coaches to look out for their players and the players’ best interests. I don’t believe Pat Casey did that for Abel last year. He chose to ride him for 129 pitches after having him pitch the day before in an elimination game, all while he was pitching on just three days of rest. That kind of overuse would make any MLB team cringe.

Maybe the tradeoff of winning the championship was worth it for Abel if it meant he needed Tommy John surgery the following season. Only he can answer that question. But his coaching staff did not handle him responsibly, leaving the surgery news as a disappointing but ultimately not very surprising outcome.