Shoulder Surgery and Baseball

Dr. Joshua Harris and colleagues (2013) examine professional baseball pitchers following shoulder surgery for a shoulder injury.

Shoulder surgery among baseball players included arthroscopic surgery, rotator cuff, open, labrum, fracture, and more. The average career length of the baseball pitchers studied was just over six years.

Following the players a year after shoulder surgery, about two thirds of the pitchers had returned to participation in baseball.

Additionally, athletic performance following surgery for a shoulder injury improved for the baseball players when compared to performance prior to surgery.

Researchers did note, however, that that athletic performance following surgery for an injury did not tend to reach pre-injury performance levels. Find out more about baseball pitchers following shoulder surgery.