3-11-26 - Mo Egger with Dr. Jonathan Slaughter from OrthoCincy, on Hunter Greene

Dr. Jonathan Slaughter from OrthoCincy joined us to discuss the surgery being performed on Hunter Greene, the timeline for his return, the possible cumulative effect of injuries, and whether he'll have to make adjustments to how he pitches. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk with one of the experts, one of the
doctors from Ortho Sincy Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. The great
thing about Ortho Sincy is they have specialist locations and
services all over the Tri State, including walking orthopedic urgent
care at five locations with extended evening and weekend hours
in Edgewood and Anderson. Learn more at orthosinc dot com.
That's Ortho ci Ncy dot com. Doctor Jonathan Slaughter from

(00:23):
Orthosincy is with us. So a lot of people have
said this, he gets the PRP injection at the outset
of the offseason instead of the procedure that he's having,
and so forget that he should have had the procedure
that he's having earlier in the offseason so he wouldn't
have to miss any time in twenty twenty six. Is
that from your perspective? Is that a fair way of
looking at things from a fans perspective?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's a tough question, and it comes down to where
this is where medicine is really an art. And then
when you're a sports doctor, it can complicate things because
now you have to figure out the timing not just
of the injury, but of the season and where they're at.
And so when he had this bone spurs in his

(01:07):
elbow with some loose bodies, you think, well, can we
treat this nonoperatively avoid the risk of surgery, And that's
what they kind of talked about and decided to try.
Could we do this peer p get the inflammation down,
maybe get some healing of it to where then we
don't have to undergo surgery. The problem is when that fails,

(01:29):
now the next step is the surgical procedure, and the
timeline is also thrown off.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
So having the surgery today, let's talk about the timeline
that has sort of been big part of the public discourse.
I guess fourteen to sixteen weeks. What will those roughly
three or four months look like for Hunter Green?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, the first six weeks is basically just healing, recovery,
getting inflammation down, and maintaining motion and building strength, basically
not picking up a ball. By six weeks, if he's
got good motion, strength and the swelling and inflammation is down,
that's when you start a throwing program. That would start
just flat ground light tossing variable degrees of distance as

(02:15):
well as effort. Once you progress through the flat phase.
You then go up to the mound starting light effort fastballs,
progress up in the amount of pitches, the amount of
effort and strength, as well as mixing in the other
pitches that he has.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Once he gets back to maximum level throwing. Whenever that is,
is there a risk of the bone chips reforming or
there being some sort of aggravation of the injury that
could further delay his return and maybe put his entire
season in jeopardy.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
With this injury, it's called vougus extension overload, where when
the elbow goes through a vougus stress, which is what
you experience with throwing, and your arm goes into extension
at the end of the pitch, you get increased force
on the inside of the elbow and will slaw is

(03:11):
what we discuss in orthopedics, where the bone reacts to
external stress and it builds more bone in that area
and that's how you develop these bone spurs or what
we call osteophytes. Well, he's going to continue to exert
this stress through pitching and he can redevelop those. Now
I doubt he would redevelop those in this year, but

(03:33):
that could be a future worry of developing more bone spurs,
and then those bone spurs can break, and that's how
those loose bodies develop.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Hunter Green throws hard, and so when you talk about
his max effort, that means getting it up there one
hundred miles an hour even more. I know you're not
a pitching coach, you're a doctor. But from a medical
professionals perspective, is there a suggestion that he either changed
his mechanics or just not throw his hard.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
From a medical perspective, you would always say you want
to avoid this stress that's causing the issue. Well, pitching
creates that stress, so he's not going to be able
to fully avoid the stress that causes these bone spurs.
And he's at the elite level. He's one of the
top pitchers, so his form as is is at an

(04:30):
elite form. He might make minor adjustments which I would
leave to the professional pitching coaches, but overall I don't
see him changing much of what got him to where
he is.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Hunter Green is as awesome as he is when he
is healthy. Has now a very extensive injury history, Tommy
John surgery a shoulder problem in twenty twenty to a
hip issue in twenty twenty three. Elbow and growing twenty
twenty four to twenty twenty five, and now this how
much is just a cumulative effect a concern here when

(05:03):
it comes to Hunter.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
A lot of it can also just be mental, the
mental effect of almost every year being on the il,
the toll it can take mentally. Again, he's an elite
athlete with elite trainers put in his body through maximum stress.
But it's one of those do you call him injury prone? Well,

(05:30):
once you start getting all these injuries, you know, he
might be what you would call injury prone. But I
don't think there's anything biological to say, yeah, this is
why he keeps getting these injuries.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, but because I you know, I always think that's
the most fascinating part of this, right because as fans
we go, well, he's injury prone, and I think often
luck is involved. But I always do wonder if there's
something physiological or biological that would suggest that maybe a
guy like Hunter just isn't going to have the sort
of long career that so many of us hope he's
going to have.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Nothing biological. I think most of it is luck. I
think part of it is just the rigors of one
hundred and sixty plus games schedule or one hundred and
sixty two game schedule, as well as off season training
and what's demanded of.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Them one more And this kind of goes back to
something you and I talked about last week. He was
feeling discomfort before spring training, but he still threw, still
appeared in a game. We'd love to go back in time,
I guess. But when a picture, whether it's at this
level or at the amateur level, is feeling that discomfort

(06:44):
from where you sit, how much do you recommend, Look,
don't get on the mound, don't pick up a ball,
don't throw. Let's look at this before we incur further
risk of something even more drastic than what we're dealing.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
With here, big time. So I even this weekend we
had the Anderson Little League managers meeting, and as a
safety officer, I was telling them, Look, if your kid
has elbow pain, best thing you can do for them
is shutting down. From a thrilling perspective. It doesn't mean
you can't do other baseball related activities, but at the

(07:17):
first sign of inflammation, the best thing you can do
is rest at is it, take anti inflammatories, get the
inflammation down. If that pain continues after getting inflammation down.
That's when you investigate further.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Makes total sense. I appreciate the insight consecutive weeks, doctor
Jonathan Slaughter from a Ortho Sinsey. Appreciate the time we
will chat. I'm sure soon.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Mo an awesome expertise from doctor Jonathan's Slaughter from Orthos Sincy.
I say this every week because it's true. The great
thing about Ortho Sinsey is they have specialists and locations
all over the Tri State. This includes walk in orthopedic
urgent care weekdays from nine am to nine pm at
on Saturdays nine am to one pm at both Edgewood
and Anderson. It's easy because you don't need an appointment,

(08:00):
and it's definitely cheaper than going to an er. Whenever
you have an urgent orthopedic injury, go to orthosinc dot com.
That's Ortho c I n c Y dot com