By many metrics, the Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the better offensive teams in all of baseball this past season. The club particularly thrived in the power department, slugging a National League-leading and franchise record 235 home runs during the regular season.
Despite enjoying that kind of success, the Dodgers found themselves subject to criticism for relying too heavily on the long ball and not enough on the basics. A major source of this was the club’s reluctance to play small ball and bunt in certain situations.
Such was exposed when opposing teams shifted against the Dodgers, as many players opted not to lay down a bunt and essentially take a free base when an entire side of the infield was left vacated.
With this in mind, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts revealed that one of the biggest priorities next season is to find ways to attack opposing shifts by strategically hitting the ball where the fielders aren’t, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“When you see one player on the left side of the infield and you’re down a run, we’re going to challenge our guys to find a way to hit it over there. But you’ve got to do that by practicing. So it’s going to be a priority for us to get better at that.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman is also on board with more bunts against opposing shifts:
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity for left-handed hitters to bunt more against the shift, which I think would get the opposing defenses to relax their defensive alignment some,” Friedman said. “I think it gets back to the specific hitter – how well they’re able to manipulate the bat, what kind of profile are they? I think there’s a lot of factors that go into it. But I think any time we can take one of our hitters and make them a better hitter without giving away their strengths, I’m all in.”
Cody Bellinger often receives the shift treatment from opposing teams, so it’ll be interesting to see if he implements bunting as a regular part of his approach next season. The trade off being preventing Bellinger from potentially making an impact with a power swing.
Should more MLB teams experiment with bunting against opposing shifts, it could dramatically change the sport going forward. However, extreme defensive positioning could soon become a thing of the past.
A report surfaced during the Winter Meetings that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is gaining support to limit shifts, which has been a goal of his since taking the helm in 2015.
