Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred have introduced a number of rule changes in recent years, many for pace-of-play purposes, and some to eliminate a strong advantage for defenders in the field of play.
Shift restrictions were implemented to avoid teams loading up one side of the field to exploit a hitter who may have extreme splits. Mainly when a left-handed batter was at the plate, teams would put an extra fielder in short right field, leaving just one defender on the left side.
Following MLB’s changes, teams must have two defenders on each side of second base and they must remain on the infield dirt prior to the play beginning.
Fielders have pressed the limits of the shift restrictions since the rules were implemented, and the penalties for those making a play after breaking the guidelines did not face severe implications. However, if a player is ruled to have committed a shift violation, they’ll face a harsher penalty in 2025, per Evan Drellich of The Athletic:
If that happens going forward, the batter is newly to be granted first base and any runners would advance one base. The fielder would be charged an error, while the batter would not register an at-bat. The offense could also decline that penalty and take the result of the play.
There were just two defensive shift violations in 2024, one committed by Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa and the other by Boston Red Sox utilityman Ceddanne Rafalea.
MLB has addressed another trend around baseball, which is runners going full speed into a base on a potential force play. The reason for players doing so is to avoid the force out, while they could continue on to the next base:
The other rule change is more arcane, but allows replay officials to check whether a runner arriving at second or third base overran the bag in a situation where they previously had to ignore that matter.
Going forward, the replay official can call the runner safe on the force play, but then out for abandonment. And whether the run coming home from third scores depends on when he’s ruled to have actually abandoned the bag.
Teams could instruct runners to continue on to the next base to avoid the abandonment call, but the old way of simply placing the runner back at their previous base was a clear incentive to run through the base. A key change is that the replay official may also negate a run if a run-scoring play happens when a runner is deemed to commit an abandonment violation.
For minor instances around MLB games, both of these changes are positive moves to clear unfair advantages to both defenders and the offense.
Which MLB rule changes have been most effective?
In the first year of defensive shift restrictions, teams committed 26 violations, that number shrank to just two this past year.
With the pitch clock, violations by pitchers, hitters and catchers totaled 602, down from 1,048 in 2023, the first year of its implementation.
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