He added, “Just never become complacent and try to maintain anything, because once you start maintaining, you ultimately lose.”

Let’s assume for a moment that Syndergaard does throw his four-seam fastball a little harder this season. Maybe it jumps to an average of 98.5 m.p.h. If it does, people will inevitably begin to wonder if a starter can average 100 miles an hour on his fastball.

“That’s feasible,” said Glenn Fleisig, research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala. “But I don’t think you’ll ever see a pitcher averaging 10 to 20 miles per hour more than that, even with all the science, technology and medicine.”

Fleisig added: “We are, I believe, at the limit of maximum velocity. And a decade from now, it won’t be any different than it is now, but it’ll continue to get more crowded at the top. Why is that? In the biomechanics of pitching, this is all the ligaments and tendons can take.”

Ligaments and tendons can be trained and strengthened only so much, Fleisig said. And many of the increasing pitching injuries are because of damaged ligaments or tendons, particularly the torn ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow that requires Tommy John surgery.

Every time a pitcher throws a baseball, the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow endures enough stress to tear. But it doesn’t — at least, most of the time. If the body is well rested, Fleisig said, those microscopic ligament tears heal and the surrounding muscles help carry the load of pitching.

So although high velocity has been found to be a factor in arm injuries, that doesn’t mean that slower throwers won’t also get hurt. The efficiency of a pitcher’s mechanics are also a factor.