Some more Dr. James Andrews from another article:
Why the Nationals Are Right to Shut Down Stephen Strasburg - Jake Simpson - The Atlantic
Quote:
Despite all the recent advances in sports medicine, there is no quantifiable innings benchmark for a pitcher in his first year back from Tommy John, Andrews said. But if a pitcher does re-injure the reconstructed ligament, the statistics are grim. Andrews' Tommy John patients have an 85 to 90 percent recovery rate from the surgery, but for those unlucky few that have to redo the procedure, the success rate drops to 25 to 35 percent.
"A redo is a career-threatening operation," Andrews said. "You're dealing with the existing scar issue, and you have to re-drill holes into already weakened bones. The scar tissue bleeds more, so the infection rate is higher. You don't wish that on anybody."
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I think it's pretty fair to shut down Strasburg, if the medical assessment is like this. What we need to question might be if players can demand all teams to do it this way.