The blister from hell: Rich Hill, Dodgers haunted by baseball's baffling bubble

Two of the major leagues’ top starters from last season, playoff performers expected to contribute substantially to their teams’ postseason aspirations this year, are sidelined by the kind of issue that might keep your grandpa from going on his evening walk — blisters.

The floundering Toronto Blue Jays put right-hander Aaron Sanchez, the 2016 American League ERA champ, on the 10-day disabled list Sunday because of a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

That’s the same affliction that continues to torment Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Rich Hill, who left Sunday’s game early after a blister popped open while he took practice swings in the on-deck circle; he was placed on the DL on Monday for the second time this month.

And New York Mets ace Noah Syndergaard has seen two of three starts shortened by blister and fingernail problems.

As an industry approaching $10 billion in yearly revenues, baseball has found ways to maximize performance through specialized training, nutrition and rest while extending careers by surgical means.

Somehow, the remedy for the common blister remains a mystery.

“It adds to the frustration that we have been able to do some great things with medicine, but this one is eluding us,” said general manager David Forst of the Oakland Athletics, for whom Hill went 9-3 in between injuries last season.

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Pitchers, who handle the ball more frequently than other players and exert pressure on different spots to manipulate its flight, have long been susceptible to blisters. Between 2010 and 2016, 11 pitchers were put on the DL because of blisters. Still, it’s rare for three prominent starters to encounter such problems two weeks into the season.

The failure to find a solution can prove costly, and not just in terms of won-lost record. While Sanchez and Syndergaard are not eligible for salary arbitration and make close to the major league minimum, Hill is in the first season of a three-year, $48 million deal. So far, he has thrown eight innings.

And while these are not the kind of ailments that send pitchers to the operating room, they can become major aggravations.

“Every time he takes the mound, the uncertainty is tough on everybody,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after using five relievers to fill in for Hill, who only lasted three innings Sunday.

The Dodgers were fully aware Hill had trouble with blisters in the weeks before they acquired him in an Aug.1 trade with Oakland, and they gave him extra time to recover before he made his Los Angeles debut Aug. 24.

His strong performance down the stretch convinced the Dodgers that Hill was worth the big contract even though he turned 37 in March. The onetime journeyman with a checkered career had become a top-notch starter thanks to an elite curveball, but the friction from that pitch also tears apart the skin on his middle finger.

The Dodgers' total investment is significant - in addition to the $48 million deal, pitching prospects Jharel Cotton and Frankie Montas were dealt to Oakland to acquire Hill.

But the blister was also costly for the player. When it first bubbled up last July, Hill was 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 76 innings. In a free agent market bereft of starting pitching, Hill still got the largest deal for a starter. Yet, had he finished the season without incident, he likely would have commanded more than three years and many millions more from potential suitors.

Now, he's financially secure, but no less frustrated with the patch of skin that keeps betraying him.

“There’s got to be some kind of medical miracle out there — like a glue or something — that can keep it covered where it won’t blister again,” Hill told news reporters after his latest setback.

Former Dodgers trainer Stan Johnston did concoct a remedy called “Stan’s Rodeo Ointment,” which Hill tried while in Oakland, apparently without much success.

With trade activity intensifying as the non-waivers deadline approached last year, Hill was scratched from his July 14 start with his first-ever instance of blister woes. Three days later, Hill left the game with a bloody finger after five pitches, and he did not throw in a major league game again until five weeks later.

“There’s just no timetable or guidebook as to how do deal with these things, because every one is different,” Forst said. “With most injuries you can actively do something to rehab, and this is one where you just have to leave it alone long enough for it to heal.”

How long that takes depends on each individual, as does each pitcher’s susceptibility to the injury.

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon suggested fair-skinned players might be more predisposed to blisters because of the way their skin reacts to the elements, adding, “I’ve had blister guys. Man, it’s nasty. It really is.”

Greg Wells, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Toronto who studies elite performance in sports, said a number of factors render pitchers vulnerable.

“Why one person might be more at risk than another could have to do with the type of pitch they throw or the genetics of their own skin,” Wells said. “It could be affected by the environment they’re in, because if the skin is wet, it will increase your risk of having a blister.”

Wells said there has been little research done on the multitude of home remedies often suggested for blisters, such as soaking the affected area in green tea or applying apple cider vinegar, aloe vera gel, castor oil, diaper rash cream, witch hazel, vitamin E or toothpaste.

While some of them might enhance the healing process, the skin takes time to mend completely. If it doesn’t, the area becomes vulnerable to recurrence.

“If it heals with a scab, with a callus or anything like that,” Wells said, “then you may have an increased risk of that callus breaking off.”

Whereas Syndergaard’s opening-day problem with a blister seems to have been an isolated incident — he also left Friday’s start early because of split fingernails — Sanchez has been dealing with blisters for much of his career.

Typically they surfaced on his index finger, but the latest issue has been on his middle finger and flares up after he throws several curveballs.

Sanchez, who is scheduled to visit a hand specialist in Kansas City this week, sounded just as exasperated as Hill in addressing the little problem with the big consequences.

“We don’t really know when it comes, how it comes, why it’s coming,” Sanchez told news reporters. “I’m hoping it’s not going to take too long, but it’s so hit-and-miss. The finger, it’s one of the most important things for me in terms of feel and command, and for me to go out there and not be on your top (form), it’s hard to compete.”

Contributing: Bob Nightengale in Chicago.

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