The Number That Just Killed MLB Expansion: 1,217
 

USA Today's Bob Nightengale dropped a bomb shell recently that the baseball world is still digesting. Major League Baseball wants to expand to 32 teams. Team executives are quietly opposing it and the reason has nothing to do with cities or money.
 

They cannot find enough healthy pitchers.
 

Between 2020 and 2024, professional baseball performed 1,026 Tommy John surgeries at the minor-league level alone. Another 191 at the Major League level. More than twelve hundred elbow reconstructions in five years on the best young pitchers in the world.
 

That is not bad luck. That is a system reporting a verdict on itself.
 

For fifteen years, the youth-baseball industry has chased one number: velocity significantly more than projectability and arm care. 
 

Recruiters scout by it. 
 

Social media celebrates it. 
 

Showcases rank by it. 

And an entire generation of young pitchers has been developed toward that single metric at the expense of everything that keeps an arm alive long enough to use it. 

The bill has come due.
 

At the Texas Baseball Ranch, we named our system Durathro™ — durability + throwing… for a reason. We have argued for more than two decades that the pitchers who actually go the distance are not the hardest throwers in their draft class. They are the most durable. Velocity without durability is rented success.
 

When team executives now say there are not enough arms to staff two more franchises, they are not describing a shortage of talent. They are describing the consequences of fifteen years of developmental choices made by an industry that put velocity ahead of longevity.

 

What Does This Mean for the Parent of a 12-to-18-year-old Pitcher 

Reading this Right Now?
 

Your son's career will not be decided by how hard he throws at sixteen. It will be decided by whether his arm is still healthy enough to throw at twenty-six. The pitchers who own the next decade of this sport will not be the ones who hit the radar-gun numbers fastest. They will be the ones whose development put durability first.
 

That is the work. That is what we have been building.
 

This summer at the Texas Baseball Ranch, we are running two programs designed around exactly this principle, from a 3-day bootcamp to an 11-week intensive. If you want your son developed on the right side of the surgery statistics, these are a great place to start.
 

MLB is running out of pitchers. Don't let your son be one of the reasons why.
 

Coach Ron Wolforth
 

Texas Baseball Ranch® 

Coach Ron Wolforth is the founder of The Texas Baseball Ranch® and has authored six books on pitching, including the Amazon Best Seller Pitching with Confidence. Since 2003, The Texas Baseball Ranch® has had 142 of their players drafted, and 682 have broken the 90 mph barrier. Coach Wolforth has consulted with 13 MLB teams, numerous NCAA programs, and is often referred to as “America’s Go-To Guy on Pitching.” 

Coach Wolforth lives in Montgomery, TX with his wife, Jill. They are intimately familiar with youth select, travel baseball and PG events as their son Garrett went through the process. Garrett, a former catcher in the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros organizations, still holds the PG Underclass All-American Games record for catcher velocity at 89mph which he set in 2014 at the age of 16. Garrett is now an instructor at the Texas Baseball Ranch sharing his experience with the next generation of players. 

- - - - - - - - - - - -  

Free Ranch Resources: 

 
1) A special 90-minute webinar hosted by Coach Wolforth - “The Velocity Code: 3 Secrets to Improving Velocity and Staying Healthy”.  Register here: https://keap.page/m130/velocity-webinar-registration.html  

2) Get a free copy of Coach Wolforth’s book, Pitching with Confidence. 
Visit: www.freepitchingbook.com 

Ways to train with the Ranch this summer: 

Elite Pitchers Bootcamp (EPBC) 
Join our 3-day event for pitchers ages 12+. Summer EPBC runs monthly through Labor Day weekend. (Fall schedule coming soon) Details and dates: www.texasbaseballranch.com  

 
Want to see what makes EPBC different? Request our info package “What Makes This Bootcamp Different?” by emailing Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com. 

Summer Intensive Development Program 
Train at the Ranch for 3–11 weeks this summer. 
Learn more: https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/events/tbr-summer-program/ 

3-Hour Private Training Session - designed for athletes who are needing immediate attention for a performance constraint, especially arm health related.  Call for details (936) 588-6762. 

Private Lessons & Fall Classes (Greater Houston Area) 
For details, email info@TexasBaseballRanch.com or call (936) 588-6762.