What are loose bodies in baseball? Explaining meaning, recovery time and more about elbow injury

For pitchers dealing with elbow or forearm trouble, any diagnosis other than ligament damage is generally a win. No pitcher wants to hear the dreaded three-word recommendation of “Tommy John surgery,” which costs at least a year of recovery.

With that being said, you won’t find many pitchers thrilled about having loose bodies in their elbow, either. The injury can require surgery, and any kind of throwing elbow procedure is not something to treat as minor in this era of baseball,

For some of the game’s top arms in recent seasons, a loose-body diagnosis has thrown a wrench into their season,

Here’s what you need to know about loose bodies in baseball and how the elbow injury differs from the kind that leads to Tommy John surgery.

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Loose bodies meaning

According to the Colorado University School of Medicine, loose bodies are "small pieces of bone or cartilage that have broken off and are lying or floating free within the joint." 

Loose bodies aren't just exclusive to the elbow, though for pitchers, that's where they matter when they become bothersome.

Muscles, ligaments, tendons and cartilage all play a role in allowing bones to move as freely as they do at joints, but small pieces can break off and limit a person's range of motion. 

The condition itself isn't serious and might just be a minor inconvenience for most people. For pitchers, whose arms are their livelihood, loose bodies can be a major inconvenience, particularly when even a slight drop in velocity is enough to throw a pitcher off his game.

Loose bodies causes

Loose bodies can have a number of causes, from "traumatic injury" to inflammatory diseases such as osteoarthritis, according to Rothman Orthopaedics. 

Pitchers' repeated throwing motions can cause loose bodies without any underlying condition or injury, Yankees team physician Christopher Ahmad wrote in 2019. "Hard throwers, including pitchers and position players, not only impose great force on their UCL, but they also put great force on the bone at the back of the elbow, called the olecranon," Ahmad said. "This additional stress can create bone spurs, also called osteophytes."

Bone spurs are a separate issue, but loose bodies can form when pieces of a bone spur chip off. Bone chips and loose bodies are synonyms terms, with loose bodies the formal medical term. 

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Loose bodies symptoms

Stiffness and pain are common symptoms of loose bodies in the elbow.

"Patients may experience a 'catching' sensation or be aware of something moving around inside the joint. A loose body can create a feeling of the elbow being stuck, then it will suddenly 'click-free,' according to the Colorado University School of Medicine.

Pain and stiffness can also be symptoms related to ligament damage in the elbow, so a loose bodies diagnosis is in some ways a relief to concerned pitchers considering it is much less serious.

Loose bodies treatments

For the ordinary person, loose bodies are typically treated by reducing pain and swelling rather than removing the chips, unless they are causing serious and persistent pain. Pitchers are more likely to undergo surgery because a full range of motion is absolutely necessary to be at their best.

Fortunately, the surgery is arthroscopic and considered minimally invasive, though any kind of procedure near the elbow will keep a pitcher off the mound for a bit of time.

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Loose bodies recovery timeline

If loose bodies require elbow surgery, the typical timeline for a pitcher's return is about 2-3 months. That's the timeline Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz received after his procedure in 2026.

While the surgery is minimally invasive, pitchers put so much force on their elbows that they need it to be fully healed and healthy by the time they can start throwing again.

Notable MLB loose bodies injuries

Spencer Schwellenbach, Hunter Greene, Edwin Díaz and Tarik Skubal all underwent surgery to remove loose bodies in 2026, with Greene’s recovery reportedly expected to take 3–4 months, while Díaz’s timeline is 2–3 months.

Yankees starter Carlos Rodón had surgery to remove bone chips after the 2025 season, but the procedure also included shaving down a bone spur and cost him more than six months.

Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Carrasco and Yu Darvish are among pitchers who have had the procedure in the past, but all waited until the end of the season to undergo surgery and were able to return for the start of the following year.