Injured List Hades

[Game7-91]

How much do injuries affect team performance, and W-L record?

Using Spotrac IL tracker, I put together this team-by-team record of current IL trends for each team. The Twins rank tied for 2nd in most players spending time on IL this season, 4th in most games lost, and FWIW 13th or so in salary lost to IL. Only Cincinatti has lost more players to IL, with 33.

OTOH, Cleveland is 2nd with fewest games lost, the Twins standing a healthy 61% more than Cleveland in total games lost. 

The average number of players lost is 20.6, median is 20 as well. Twins are 37% above MLB average.

I will leave to others with stat skills if someone has the  interest and time to extrapolate any relationships between IL and W-L, standings, etc....The numbers are not wholly explanatory, as this only tracks IL, not actual injured status. So Buck for example does not show up outside of his earlier IL stint, even though his performance is clearly impacted by chronic injury.

But it still is interesting to see the raw data.

And wonder, is this a measurement of overall organizational effectiveness at finding wins from injury prevention/injury management processes? If so, it seems the Twins as an organization are lacking. Or is it just random chance?

 

TEAM                        PLAYERS                 GAMES         SALARY

 

Minnesota Twins                   28                    1,482               $19,695,754

 

 

Chicago White Sox               22                    1,034               $27,311,959

 

 

Cleveland Guardians            14                    590                  $1,873,537

 

 

Cincinnati Reds                     33                    1,805               $19,146,288

 

 

Houston Astros                      13                    668                  $21,323,396

 

 

New York Yankees               19                    908                  $27,734,718

 

 

Arizona Diamondbacks        18                    657                  $8,515,647

 

 

Texas Rangers                       20                    593                  $8,408,691

 

 

Detroit Tigers                        22                    1,228               $13,213,117

 

 

Philadelphia Phillies             24                    1,090               $19,588,138

 

 

Toronto Blue Jays                 15                    681                  $19,077,925

 

 

Tampa Bay Rays                   27                    1,681               $18,963,632

 

 

Washington Nationals          21                    1,465               $37,151,205

 

 

St. Louis Cardinals               15                    687                  $15,527,953

 

 

Pittsburgh Pirates                 28                    1,248               $7,451,460

 

 

Seattle Mariners                    19                    928                  $11,917,427

 

 

San Diego Padres                  18                    1,105               $28,998,575

 

 

San Francisco Giants            23                    935                  $27,803,734

 

 

Oakland Athletics                 20                    770                  $4,919,680

 

 

New York Mets                     18                    957                  $43,906,012

 

 

Milwaukee Brewers             21                    881                  $8,584,348

 

 

Kansas City Royals               20                    756                  $11,191,535

 

 

Los Angeles Angels               18                    960                  $26,494,588

 

 

Boston Red Sox                     23                    1,316               $49,669,322

 

 

Los Angeles Dodgers            22                    1,379               $31,843,729

 

 

Miami Marlins                      27                    1,118               $9,695,396

 

 

Atlanta Braves                      16                    906                  $18,159,353

 

 

Baltimore Orioles                  12                    577                  $3,845,750

 

 

Chicago Cubs                        27                    1,558               $31,065,902

 

 

Colorado Rockies                  17                    780                  $14,883,593

[Rosterman]

Looking ahed to 2023:

Returning arms to the rotation: Paddack, Dobnak, Ober and Maeda. 

Relief arms: Alcala, Stashak, Coulombe, Romero.

Catcher: Jeffers

Infielders: Lewis (but not Sano).

Outfielders: Kirilloff, Larnach, Garlick.

That could be HALF the current roster. Granted, a few won't return, joining Sano elsewhere. We can still see some return in September, but msot will involve a corresponding roster move down to the minors or off the 40-man by someone currently on the 40-man.

But, yeah - that's a nice piece of change the Twins have sitting in the trainer's room not able to play!

[BH67]

Here's a different question.  My recall is that the Twins are consistently above the MLB norm in player days on the injured list.  If the data of the last three years support that, then what are the Twins NOT doing in terms of conditioning that needs be addressed pronto?

[Game7-91]

1 hour ago, BH67 said:

Here's a different question.  My recall is that the Twins are consistently above the MLB norm in player days on the injured list.  If the data of the last three years support that, then what are the Twins NOT doing in terms of conditioning that needs be addressed pronto?

Great point. I clarified that first question a bit to better get the gist of what I was trying to ask, but this is pretty much it. Does injury prevention/injury management need a re-working? It does seem year-after-year we are left to wonder at some odd injury management decisions. Maybe someday I will dig a little deeper into past seasons to see where Twins stand comparatively over time.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Great post. It’s definitely a start to try to figure out how much injuries really are hurting (hurting the team, that is, not the ailing player with the injury). 

i wonder if Maeda is counted in here? He would be valuable to have, but then, we weren’t really counting on him at all this season. So on first reaction I would call Maeda’s injury as not hurting the team this season. 

I also wonder if this can be broken down by WAR?

Seems like a lot of teams are still dealing with the injury bug. Last year was historic for injuries, if you remember. But this year I know the Dodgers and Mets have been without Kershaw and Buehler, and DeGrom and Scherzer, for stretches. The Twins don’t have equivalents for those guys. 

thanks! 

 

[Game7-91]

30 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Great post. It’s definitely a start to try to figure out how much injuries really are hurting (hurting the team, that is, not the ailing player with the injury). 

i wonder if Maeda is counted in here? He would be valuable to have, but then, we weren’t really counting on him at all this season. So on first reaction I would call Maeda’s injury as not hurting the team this season. 

I also wonder if this can be broken down by WAR?

Seems like a lot of teams are still dealing with the injury bug. Last year was historic for injuries, if you remember. But this year I know the Dodgers and Mets have been without Kershaw and Buehler, and DeGrom and Scherzer, for stretches. The Twins don’t have equivalents for those guys. 

thanks! 

 

Good question on Maeda. Just checked, both he and Dobnak are included. 17 of the 28 players on Twins list are pitchers. 

[Trov]

One thing the data does not have is games not played by Buxton and games played as DH, limiting his value.  Buxton has only played 54 games in CF, with only 48 started, and 32 games at DH, 31 he started.  So he has not been on the IL, but he sure has been impacted by his injury in lack of games in CF and possibly reduction in output.  He has put up big power numbers, but his is not putting up the numbers he did last year.  Looks like last year might have been the outlier year of his career in his contract year.  Hopefully next year can at least stay in CF most of the time. 

[Shaitan]

9 hours ago, Trov said:

One thing the data does not have is games not played by Buxton and games played as DH, limiting his value.  Buxton has only played 54 games in CF, with only 48 started, and 32 games at DH, 31 he started.  So he has not been on the IL, but he sure has been impacted by his injury in lack of games in CF and possibly reduction in output.  He has put up big power numbers, but his is not putting up the numbers he did last year.  Looks like last year might have been the outlier year of his career in his contract year.  Hopefully next year can at least stay in CF most of the time. 

Alternate take: Buxton is more valuable at DH than on the IL.

My point here isn't to be contrarian. It's too say there are so, so very many variables to measure if one team is more "injury prone" than another. The data is interesting, for sure. But it doesn't tell a story.

Is Paddack's (or even Maeda's) injury the Twins' fault? Is the team any worse off without Dobnak or Garlick? Do some players just have different genes that are more likely for certain injuries? Not of this is revealed in this data. It shows a comparison to other teams. It's absolutely interesting and I'm sure the FO is aware of it and trying to reduce numbers in future years. But it I find it hard to believe that it reveals the Twins are have poor conditioning or anything along those lines.

 

(And how it the data collected? Because Maeda may be "on the IL" for 162 games, but he's only missing 35 he'd actually play in.)