On March 11, 2025, Gerrit Cole, ace pitcher for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Yankees, was ruled out for the season due to an injury that required Tommy John Surgery. Cole, a three-time Cy Young award winner in 2019, 2021 and 2023 was looking forward to another stellar season. His injury was a breaking blow to the Yankees as he was projected to be their best pitcher for the 2025 season.
Similar to Gerrit Cole, Hayden Talmage, an 11th grade pitcher for the Community School of Davidson’s (CSD) varsity baseball team, also dealt with a similar problem as his season began, too. Talmage (‘26) was projected to be a top pitcher but all this changed when he broke his wrist playing basketball.
As the Spartans took the field for their first full baseball season at the new Spartan Park, Talmage could only watch, his arm and wrist in a cast.
When a MLB team loses a player to an injury, they can draft, trade, or promote another player to fill the roster.
Pitchers commonly injure their elbows in the MLB and are ruled out for an entire season to recover from a severe injury requiring Tommy John surgery. This injury is more common in pitchers compared to other positions due to pitching motions that require more strain on the arm. Pitches such as curveballs, high velocity fastballs and others come with a lot of strain on the elbow.
This can happen to pitchers who are on the younger side, as well, as they might start throwing curveballs at an early age which can put a lot of damage on a young arm that isn’t yet fully developed. According to NBC26, about 35% of all MLB pitchers have had Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers.
For a high school baseball team like CSD, a team built entirely of young athletes below the age of 18, losing players can result in season changing setbacks.
First of all, teams might have limited pitching. The injury of an ace pitcher can lead to immense pressure on other pitchers to do well in every game on a shorter rotation. The absence on the mound removes that threat from the rotation which could make the team’s pitching less intimidating to opposing teams. Without the arm of a quality pitcher, the team may struggle to get outs which will lead to the other team putting up a lot of runs.
It also led to uncertainty of how the rest of the season might go due to a key injury and different pressures and demands on different players. With one less ace pitcher, CSD found themselves in situations where they needed to score more runs to make up for runs allowed. This placed additional pressure on the offense to be more productive.
For both MLB and high school teens, injuries affect morale and emotions in different ways.
Emotions can definitely be strong between high schoolers, but the MLB is a different story. Professional coaches have to change the course of their season and the fanbase often gets very angry. A fanbase makes up a large part of a baseball team and when the fans are angry, the team gets put under immense pressure and jeopardy to find a solution to the injury.
CSD varsity baseball coach TJ Albert helps injured players come back emotionally strong for the CSD varsity baseball team.
“Any time you rehab in any sport, you’re not going to come back and be the exact same player you were prior to the injury,” TJ Albert said. “So I think that’s really important from the coaching perspective is to make sure you continue to coach the player up while he’s hurt so that when he returns, there’s a realistic expectation of what the level of success will be.”
Coaches at all levels must make adjustments, too. Coaches have to change their game plan for the season, and parents start to wonder why the team isn’t hitting or pitching as well as they have done in the past.
Coaches not only make decisions, they also have to field and process questions and concerns. Albert has to be the coach to step up in times of need.
“I just think it’s important that any time anyone gets hurt to make sure that everybody knows it’s the responsibility of the next guy to do what he’s supposed to do so we can all come together and play together,” Albert said.
While injuries are tough, successful teams find ways to steer around them and bounce back. By doing this, a team learns how to have resilience and learns to get out of tough situations. Injuries can’t be avoided, but a season that goes to waste can be.
An All-State diver for the CSD Spartans swim and dive team, Avery Nardone (‘26), has had to deal with a back/shoulder injury for about three years.
“The root cause is dislocation of one of my ribs causing strain on my back and shoulder muscles. It is an ongoing struggle that takes a lot of work in physical therapy but is important so I can perform to my maximum potential,” Avery Nardone said.
When any player of any sport returns towards the middle of the season, it changes a team’s dynamic. One may question whether they will be as effective due to their injury absences. They might be limited and it could take them some time to come back mentally and physically strong.
Despite the early season injury Hayden Talmage was able to come back strong on the mound after missing two months. CSD’s 9-8 season shows that the team was resilient with multiple comeback wins and walk-offs.
As for the pitching, other players stepped up and proved themselves worthy of pitching throughout the season.
Teams adjust and the CSD baseball team has done a great job performing through the injuries of various players like Talmage. As the injured players could only watch and cheer, CSD’s coaches and athletes worked hard to fill the gap.
While only time can tell, players and coaches hope for a good return and that the player can stay healthy for the duration of the season.
