Dodgers' River Ryan blamed MLB rule changes after season-ending elbow injury

At the beginning of the season, baseball was hit with a rash of severe pitching injuries, which ended the seasons for some of the game's best-known names before they could really even begin. Spencer Strider, Shane Bieber, Eury Perez — these were just a few starters whose seasons came to a close in the young months of the season.

The Dodgers weren't exempt from that wave. Emmet Sheehan didn't pitch in spring training and underwent Tommy John in May, and Kyle Hurt followed in late July. River Ryan is the latest Dodger to necessitate the procedure, after being pulled with forearm tightness in his last start against the Pirates on Saturday.

Theories ran rampant during the initial crop of ended seasons and subsequent surgeries — the pitch clock, as well as the league's crackdown on foreign substances, which has required pitchers to reshape their mechanics accordingly — but Ryan specifically called out the pitch clock when he spoke to reporters after his start, saying, "Throwing back-to-back pitches within 15 seconds starts to take a toll."

Dodgers' River Ryan called out the pitch clock as the cause of recent spread of pitcher injuries

MLB was quick to shut down the pitch clock theory back in May, after the president of the MLBPA alluded to it being the problem. In their response, MLB cited a study from Johns Hopkins University that said there was "no evidence that pitchers who worked quickly ... or sped up their pace were more likely to sustain an injury than those who did not."

Tyler Glasnow weighed in years ago, while he was still with the Rays, in a clip that has since resurfaced with all of the concerns this year. He did say that the pitch clock increased the "physical burden" on pitchers, but also said that the lack of any foreign substance was also to blame for a lot of his injuries throughout his time in Tampa, hindering him from getting a better grip on the ball.

Then there's also the question of velocity. Baseball is putting a higher emphasis on pitchers who can throw 100+ MPH regularly, which unavoidably also creates more strain on arms.

Whatever the case, Ryan's season is over. The Dodgers have Landon Knack to hold things down at the back of the rotation now, but a long-term, league-wide solution and actual answers are definitely needed here from MLB directly in order to get out from under this issue.