This guy got injured very early in the season and has been on 60 day IR since June 21 (it is mow August 9). 27 days left on his injury, he might be available deep in the playoffs if I make it that far.

Not a single recovery boost. Is there something I did wrong or is this just a wis deficiency? Were the hits he took, limited to contact, power and arm strength not severe enough?

Never mind that he was a 100 health player and I run 20/20 med//training on this team but got a season ender. His exorbinant salary is not part of the equation, just an additional kick in the nuts.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerInjuries.aspx?pid=13014369

My immediate thought is that a herniated disc usually saps power. But since he wasn't really a power hitter to begin with, he didn't lose as much as I would expect. I don't know why he hasn't received a Recovery yet but it seems to me that sometimes happens with injuries of this duration. Regardless, I'd count him out the rest of the season and leave him on IR till next season.

Its not sometimes. It is 100 percent of the time on early season long term injuries. He had high makeup and high health so he only lost 10 percent of his ratings when the injury occurred, but it is now (for the last 6 years or so) standard that early season long term injuries result in the player sitting there with no recovery until either day 161 if the season or the day before the player is eligible to return from injury. Yes, it has been this broken for six years.

Well somehow during the day his days remaining went from 27 to -2 and now to no days indicated, just 60-day DL on his player card.

I'm locked into at least the top wild card and probably can't win the division so I'm going to let it ride till the playoffs start to see if I can get the Day 161 bump.

If his DL icon is green, you'll likely get nothing extra for waiting. If he's at -2, he likely got his only recovery cycle he'll get.

Tired of the system always picking top players and/or top prospects for long term injuries.

Tired of injured players never fully recovering. Lose 6 overall and you are lucky to get one back.

Always seems to be your best players, too.

Whether its the best players, the middle of the road players or bottom of the roster players, it is broken. Of course we're going to remember and pay more attention when its our best players, but the brokenness of injury recovery does not discriminate.

In fact, I'd bet that it took real life years for people to realize how broken injury recovery is because when it happened to lower tier players, people paid less attention. However, when it happens to a top three player on your team, you definitely notice when they come bsck 6 points worse with chance of full recovery.

Now imagine this happens to three, four or five of your players over ten seasons or so. In a situation like that, it matters less if it is top tier, middle tier or low tier type players because, in the aggregate, all of them are still on your team and makes you feel like you're playing with a flawed team. Not because you're not good at building dynasties, but because one small thing is broken in the game, but this small thing can easily add up into something huge.

This just happend to me with a guy I gave a massive contract to this past offseason. He was 99 health so thought it would be safe, but alas, 6 points off his overall.
https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=12669085

Posted by gasparlemarc on 8/12/2026 7:55:00 PM (view original):
This just happend to me with a guy I gave a massive contract to this past offseason. He was 99 health so thought it would be safe, but alas, 6 points off his overall.
https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=12669085

Yep. Its a tough pill to swallow.

Had a Pitcher go down with an injury in the divisonal series, shoulder tendinitis 17 days, I put him immeditely on the 15 day DL and his DL stint just ended during the current World series yet there is no player event on his player card card saying "injury recovery" has happened. There was a full point ratings loss in all major pitching ratings at the "Time of Injury" notification and I have 20/20 training and medical yet becuase its playoffs it won't register any recovery points???

This doesn't make any sense to me and I hope this also gets addressed in the update.

Posted by gatesfanelli on 8/13/2026 1:56:00 PM (view original):
Had a Pitcher go down with an injury in the divisonal series, shoulder tendinitis 17 days, I put him immeditely on the 15 day DL and his DL stint just ended during the current World series yet there is no player event on his player card card saying "injury recovery" has happened. There was a full point ratings loss in all major pitching ratings at the "Time of Injury" notification and I have 20/20 training and medical yet becuase its playoffs it won't register any recovery points???

This doesn't make any sense to me and I hope this also gets addressed in the update.

Yes, that is accurate. If it happened in the playoffs and he recovers in the playoffs, no recovery bump. Not saying its good, just saying thats the regular cadence.

Posted by gasparlemarc on 8/12/2026 7:55:00 PM (view original):
This just happend to me with a guy I gave a massive contract to this past offseason. He was 99 health so thought it would be safe, but alas, 6 points off his overall.
https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=12669085

Yeah, I'll stop complaining about my $9.5 million guy.

No I actually won't but I don't feel quite as bad.

It’s the randomness for me. In one world a 39 yo guy went down with a shoulder aneurysm and got like 9 recovery bumps until his splits were like 108/106 when he was activated. Meanwhile 22yos with 100 makeup go down and never recover a point.

I'd actually take random because that's closer to real life. In hbd, it isn't random. It is pretty much the below -- very predictable.

1 to 25 day injury = a 60 day DL stint with a $20 million team medical budget and a decent player makeup rating leads to a player either getting full recovery or possibly getting two recovery bumps and coming back slightly better than he was before the injury. That's broken. Its not hugely/significantly broken, but it is still broken.

26 to 60 day injury = the player gets put on the shorter day DL, he's likely not getting full recovery. If he's put on the 60 day DL, he has a chance to come back fully recovered from injury. This is assuming 20 million in medical and a decent player makeup rating. This is likely the least broken tranche of injury recovery.

60 to 250 day injury = very likely that the player does not fully recover from the injury and if it is an early season 150+ day injury, it is very likely that the player comes back significantly worse. This is despite a 20 million in medical and a decent player makeup rating. In most cases, if its a 150+ day early season injury, the player comes back from injury 4 to 7 points worse. If its a late season injury, it isnt quite as bad. Still, extremely broken. So much so that people have quit the game because of it.

251 to 365 day injury = big chance that he comes back better or significantly better. The closer the injury is to end of the season, the better. This is where the medical bug still exists, but only if it is a year over year injury. So, do that math. If a shoulder aneurism is 365 days and it happens during the playoffs, that means 365 - playoff days left - 110 off season days, let's just say that is 230 days left on the injury. That means, the next season, the player likely gets 6 six recovery cycles the next season. And he likely got one over season roll, as well. So, thats 7 recovery cycles. So the shoulder aneurism has the highest chance to where the player comes back significantly better. Very broken, players coming back from injury as super heroes shoukd not be a thing. Or, if it is a thing, it should be very rare (like Adrian Peterson rare).

I concur with those observations.
The fact that injury recovery is such an OBSERVABLY flawed process is the matter.
The timing of an injury, objectively, shouldn't be the MOST important factor in its recovery.