Kris Bryant’s hit-by-pitch a reminder of uncertain nature of head injuries

MLB batters step up to the plate to face thousands of pitches a year, and inevitably, some of those fastballs and sliders slip off their mark and toward players’ heads. Kris Bryant was the victim of one of these unfortunate pitches Sunday and had to leave the Cubs’ 9-7 win over the Rockies.

The good news is that players are required to wear helmets in the batter’s box at all times, so Bryant’s head had some form of protection from the 96 mile-per-hour fastball thrown by German Marquez. It’s not quite as scary as a pitcher taking a 103 mile-per-hour line drive directly off the side of his head with nothing to brunt the impact.

After being hit by the pitch, Bryant left the game.

Bryant has since been checked on by team doctors, but manager Joe Maddon said Bryant doesn’t have a concussion. Bryant was seeking another opinion from the Indians’ doctor Tuesday.

Still, it’s a potentially precarious situation for Bryant, who also underwent concussion tests in 2015 and 2016. He stopped sliding head first on the base paths three years ago after one of the incidents.

Even a brief foray into the history of head injuries in baseball is a reminder of how difficult they can be to manage. While concussions might not be as prevalent as in physical sports like football or hockey, they can still pose long-term problems given how little doctors know about the treatment of such complicated issues.

Consider the impact that concussions had on former White Sox first baseman Justin Morneau, who missed most of the 2010 and 2011 seasons while dealing with symptoms. Morneau suffered his injury by taking a knee to the head while sliding into second base, not from a rogue pitch, but it almost permanently derailed his career.

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt said earlier this year that his life was adversely affected after being hit in the head by a pitch in August, which caused him to miss the rest of the 2017 season.

“Small things would make me angry, and that’s not me,” Belt said. He added that he’s recovered from the symptoms, but it wasn’t an easy road. Belt’s wife said at the time she was worried what would happen if he’s hit in the head again.

Joe Mauer, one of the best pure hitters of the generation, revealed years after his 2013 concussion that he had been having vision issues as a result. Players aren’t the only ones who can have these problems, too. Umpire Dale Scott quit his job last year at age 57 after suffering his fourth concussion in five years.

Another former member of the White Sox, catcher Tyler Flowers, has helped lead the charge in better protecting catchers, who are disproportionately likely to suffer concussions during games. Flowers is also part-owner of Force3 Pro Gear, which makes equipment specially designed to reduce the impact of head contact to catchers.

“Unfortunately, you don’t take it all that serious until you find yourself in the midst of some sort of issue,” Flowers told CBS Sports. “That’s been the case with a lot of the catchers who have started to wear it — they experience a concussion or something close to it that lets them know they need to take it a little more serious, then they end up reaching out to us and switching over.”

The flip side is that some, at least in the short-term, come out largely unscathed.

Rangers shortstop Jurickson Profar had to undergo concussion protocol a week ago after colliding with a baserunner and missed just two contests. Mariners outfielder Ichiro took a pitch to the head last month, passed concussion protocol and played in the team’s season opener.

“He was just like, ‘I’m totally, totally fine,’” Brandon Mann, the pitcher who hit Ichiro, said the future Hall of Famer told him. “And he was just like, through his interpreter, ‘I don’t want you to let this affect your pitching. You keep pitching inside.’ I appreciated that.”

Indications are that Bryant’s recovery from being hit in the head will be smooth, but these situations are often complicated. Even if he’s lucky enough to come back quickly like Profar and Ichiro, studies have shown there are significant long-term health risks associated with repeated head trauma. This is something Bryant will need to monitor going forward, particularly given his past history.

The impact of a concussion can be difficult to predict, even with proper diagnosis and treatment. The Cubs are saying that Bryant did not suffer a concussion in this instance, which is very good news. But given the tricky nature of head injuries, everyone involved will want to be careful. You can look at players like Morneau, Belt and Mauer to understand the risk here.