Auburn alum training Boston Red Sox pitchers

“I came across the Sports Medicine and Movement Lab on the internet and saw that Dr. Oliver did throwing biomechanics research,” Wasserberger said. “Most of the academic biomechanics labs you see focus on the lower extremities and walking and running. Having played baseball growing up, I wanted to study throwing biomechanics, so I cold emailed her directly asking if she had space for another grad student in her lab.”

Luckily for him, Oliver, one of the world’s leading experts on softball pitching and injury prevention, did have space. Wasserberger, who graduated from Auburn’s School of Kinesiology with a master’s degree in 2018 and a doctorate in 2021, is well on his way to joining her as an expert, having published nearly four dozen journal articles, many of them with Oliver as a co-author. This fall, Wasserberger took on a new challenge when he joined Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox organization as lead biomechanist working out of the famous Fenway Park.

Before joining the Red Sox, Wasserberger worked as a principal sport scientist with Driveline Baseball Enterprises, training professional and collegiate baseball pitchers. Although he had graduated from Auburn, he continued to publish research with Oliver while also building biomechanics processing systems and developing athlete- and trainer-facing reports for Driveline. He’ll be doing more of the same in his new role with the Red Sox.

“I will be helping build and scale biomechanics processing systems for markerless and markered biomechanics data,” he said. “That will take most of my time for the first year or two, at which point I hope to transition more time back to sports science and biomechanics research.”

While much of the research he’s done with Oliver is on softball, Wasserberger said there are quite a few similarities in women’s and men’s pitching. Both softball and baseball pitchers want to improve performance and minimize the risk of injuries, factoring in mechanics, workloads, weight training, nutrition and more. However, softball players do face one obstacle baseball players don’t.

“One difference in baseball and softball biomechanics research is the throwing arm: While overall shoulder and elbow joint loads are similar between the baseball and softball pitching motions, the overhead nature of the baseball pitch places the arm in a more vulnerable position,” he said. “Conversely, the reduced number of pitchers on a typical softball roster compared to a typical baseball roster results in greater workloads for softball pitchers. Both populations are at high injury risk.”

Wasserberger is continuing to produce research with Oliver, including two papers they published together this year. One paper looked at how energy moves through the body during a pitch, and the other is a study of how different parts of the body work together to create a powerful baseball swing. Oliver says the Red Sox are lucky to have Wasserberger on their team.

“Kyle is an exceptional individual with a strong passion for baseball research,” she said. “It has been incredibly rewarding to witness his development and specialization within this field as his mentor, and in addition to being a remarkable mentee, he is a valued colleague. I feel privileged to continue working with him as he continually introduces new and innovative techniques within baseball biomechanics.”