How MLB's new rule led to a slew of position players pitching — but could help fix baseball (2024)

It isn’t often that any professional sports league changes its rules in the middle of a season. But it happened in baseball, a mere seven weeks ago. It’s possible you never even noticed.

On June 20, Major League Baseball dropped its roster hammer on all 30 clubs by imposing a rule that placed a 13-pitcher limit on every team. That news didn’t quite lead “SportsCenter,” but here’s the important thing the rule accomplished:

It pulled the plug (mercifully) on the nine-man (let alone 10-man) bullpens that had begun to proliferate across baseball after the pandemic. Hallelujah.

The long-term impact of this rule is momentous. If a team employs fewer relief pitchers, but still needs 27 outs a night, it seems obvious how that teamshouldreact, right?

Just push those starting pitchers a little deeper every night, andvoila! If the starter goes six-plus innings and the relievers have to get only eight or nine outs a game, instead of 12 to 14, then who even misses that ninth dude in the ’pen?

Restoring the prominence of the starting pitcher in this sport would be — and should be — good for everybody. So why not get that restoration started!

But is that what happened? C’mon, it’s baseball. Of course that’s not what happened.

Oh, innings pitched per startareup slightly since the 13-pitcher rule kicked in (from 5.11 to 5.33). But we can sum up the three biggest things that happened this way:

1. MANAGERS HATE THIS RULE (OBVIOUSLY)

You know what managers think about? Winning! But also: How to orchestrate their pitching staff every night so the right pitcher is matching up with the right hitter in pretty much every moment of every game. So if you gave them a 17-man bullpen, they’d all say:Cool!

You know what managers don’t have the bandwidth to care about? How to make baseball a more watchable, compelling entertainment product. So guess what most of them think of a rule like this — even though they knew it was coming (since it had been announced more than a year ago but then delayed because of pandemic ripple effects)?

“I don’t like it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It just doesn’t make sense. I think that once you have a roster number, they’re all players. They’re all members of the Major League (Baseball) Players Association. So you should be able to put your roster together in the best way you see fit. I don’t think that they should dictate the number of pitchers orhitters. That’s a strategy.”

2. FRONT OFFICES HATE THIS RULE (OBVIOUSLY)

You know what modern front offices think about? Winning! But also: How to maximize roster construction in a way that gives them even a microscopic edge on all those other teams, because that adds up over 162 games.

So guess what modern front offices would rather not worry about? Right. Any rule that gets in the way of that, no matter how thoughtful the reasoning behind it.

“I haven’t found one person who likes or understands this rule,” one AL exec complained after the 13-pitcher limit arrived on his doorstep. “Everyone hates it. No one likes it. And the result is a ton of position players pitching, a ton of pitchers being (designated for assignment) and a bunch of pitchers changing teams constantly — because you run out of healthy pitchers you can use, so you have to make a move to bring one in. So I just do not understand the rule.”

3. YOUR BACKUP SHORTSTOP IS WORKING ON HIS SLIDER

Me to an executive of one club recently:“It seems like the biggest effect of this 13-pitcher rule is that two or three position players pitch every day.”

This exec’s pithy response:“Get used to it.”

Hoo, boy. The concept here is so simple. The long-term goal of limiting relievers is to incentivize teams to get more innings out of their starting pitchers. That’s still true. Unfortunately, the short-term impact seems to be that teams are getting more innings out of their backup shortstop.

Position players pitching

2016 — 26 all season
2022 — 34* just since this rule took effect on June 20

(*through Aug. 9 games)

welcome back! hanser alberto is once again a

(•_•)
<) )╯POSITION
/ \
\(•_•)
( (> PLAYER
/ \
(•_•)
<) )> PITCHING
/ \ pic.twitter.com/oM2EXNPEim

— Cut4 (@Cut4) July 29, 2022

Me to Dave Roberts:“The idea of this was to incentivize more innings from starting pitchers. Why is that not happening?”

Roberts’ response:“It’s not gonna happen.”

So a typical day in baseball now features an average of nearly one position player pitching for somebody’s team. But we’ve had 10 days, in barely the month and a half since this rule became official, in which multipleposition players have pitched. We even had one day (July 5) whenfiveof them pitched.

So is that good? We’ll discuss shortly. But first …

Here’s why baseball is doing this

We don’t understand this rule, front offices say? OK, then let’s explain this rule, why it matters and why it will continue to matter (since there’s a good chance it won’t be going away).

Maybe someone has mentioned this to those front offices at a meeting somewhere, butbaseball is an important form of entertainment to millions of Americans. According to Nielsen (via the Sports Business Journal), baseball’s ratings on Regional Sports Networks this season have been more than double the best rating of any prime-time show on any major network.

So in a related development, the entertainment value of this sport is emerging as a massive priority for everyone in charge of charting a course toward the future. That should make people happy, shouldn’t it?

All right, don’t answer that. Our world is filled with citizens who believe the Rules of Baseball were once delivered to Abner Doubleday on a stone tablet, never to be messed with. But guess what? That’s ridiculous.

Every other professional sport routinely tweaks its rules in the name of making its product more entertaining. And what’s the definition they all use for “more entertaining”?

What fans tell them they want.

They all poll their fans constantly. Baseball is no different. And what baseball fans say they want is:

• More action.

• Less dead time.

• More great athletes doing that awesome athletic stuff they do.

• More doubles, triples, stolen bases, runners in motion, etc.

And now here’s the important part, at least as it applies to this rule. They also want:

• Fewer pitching changes!

• More starting-pitching matchups fans can get excited about — in part because they can feel reasonably sure those starting pitchers will be out there for more than like, 12 outs.

So baseball is experimenting with numerous rule changes in the minor leagues and independent leagues, to address that first set of Things Fans Say They Want. But getting that second part accomplished — pushing back on the procession of three-out relievers who all throw 99 mph and turn the end of games into a giant swing-and-miss festival — that’s trickier.

Which brings us back to our original question: Why is baseball imposing this rule? That’s why!

Why is this even a problem?

I know it seems hard to leave your air-conditioned TV cave, when it’s 106 degrees out, to go watch a baseball game. But this just in: Those games are more air conditioned than ever — thanks to all that whiffing going on!

(Source: FanGraphs)

So if What Fans Say They Want is more action, then here’s what isn’tthe solution:

A sport where nearly one of every four hitters in the late innings is spewing out strikeouts against the spin-rate kings marching out of every bullpen.

So why is baseball attacking this problem with the 13-pitcher roster limit? Because this is getting out of control.

• The average team used 35.6 pitchers last season. Ten years ago, it was 24.1.

• The two World Series teams last October — the Braves and Astros — ripped through 61 pitchers over the course of the season. As recently as 2010, the team that won the World Series (the Giants) used 19 pitchers all year.

• Relief pitchers faced more than 78,000 hitters last season. Yes, 78,000. That’s up nearly 16,000just over the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, what teams have asked from starting pitchers has been (you guessed it) less and less and less.

• Fifty years ago, the average starting pitcher lasted more than seven innings per start.

• But just 10 years later, that number had dropped to 6.2 innings per start — and was still at 6.0 as recently as 2014. So why does that now seem more like 1814?

• Because, by the shortened season of 2020, that rate was down to (gulp) 4.8 innings per start … then 5.1 last year and now 5.2 this year.

That has to change — for all sorts of reasons. The question is …

Has anyone seen the six-inning starter factory?

When front offices grumble about rules like the 13-pitcher limit, they do that even though they’ve been told why that rule exists and why it’s complicating their lives. But here’s how they respond:

Maybe in a vacuum, in a meeting room, in a December Zoom session, it sounds totally logical to ask starters to go deeper into games. But in real life, how is that even possible?

“At our meetings, MLB talked about this,” an exec said, “about how to incentivize starting pitchers to go three times through the order again. But I don’t know how. They’re not programmed to do it. And the data tells you most of them have a hard time doing it. Gerrit Cole can do it, but not everybody is Gerrit Cole.”

Here’s another exec’s similar view:

“The honest truth is,” he said, “that there is no one in any front office, and no manager, who would say, ‘If I had Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, I’m still going to take him out of the game because I like using my ’pen.’ Literally no one thinks that. That’s the flaw in the rule.

“This rule doesn’t create more starters who can go deeper into games,” he went on. “So the result is you have position players pitching because the alternative is pitching a reliever who you’d rather not pitch and then you have to go make more roster moves.”

It’s all very rational. It’s all very true. There once was a time when starting pitchers were developed and trained to go three or four times through a lineup. That time isn’t this time. So of course teams rebel at the idea of asking pitchers to do a thing they’ve stopped being asked (or trained) to do. But …

Someteams have gotten the memo. Since the 13-pitcher rule dropped, Astros starters have averaged an additional two-thirds of an inning per start. Mets and Dodgers starters have averaged nearly an extra half-inning per start. And Phillies, Mariners and Guardians starters have averaged at least 5.5 innings per start. So there’s that.

But here’s what should be happening beyond big-league mounds and coaches’ meetings: Inside the most savvy front offices’ think tanks and player-development planning rooms, shouldn’t it be sinking in by now that this rule is here to stay? And if it is, isn’t it time to make a dramatic shift in how pitchers are developed?

That happens by changing scouting priorities. That happens by changing development plans. That happens by making innings and volume the priority again, as opposed to mph and rpm. We’ll revisit those changes shortly, too. But first …

Is the position-player pitching schtick still fun?

For the last couple of decades, I can guarantee that nobody loved a rollicking pitching appearance by the backup catcher more than I did. For a while there, I even used to take pride in calling (and writing about) every single position player who went to the mound.

Good thing I’m not trying to do that anymore. I’d be talking to those guys more than I talk to my family.

2021 Award for Most Entertaining Strikeout by a Position Player Pitching. 🏆

Winner: Anthony Rizzo vs. Freddie Freeman pic.twitter.com/toeLhQzoWN

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) December 8, 2021

Position-player pitching appearances used to be a hilarious little novelty. They’re now an epidemic.

Year-by-year position-player pitching appearances

“Olden days”

2005 — 1
2006 — 0
2007 — 7
2008 — 3

“Nowadays”

2022 — 76 (through Aug. 9 games)
2021 — 89
2020 — 95*
2019 — 90

(*prorated over 162 games)
(Source: Baseball-Reference/Stathead)

But this pace has gotten even more out of hand over the last month and a half. Since the 13-pitcher rule arrived, here is just some of what has ensued:

• Since June 20, MLB has averaged five position players trotting to the mound per week. Before that, it was 3.9 per week. But as recently as six years ago, it was once a week. And 10 years ago, it was two per month.

• Also since June 20, MLB has had four position players pitch in nine-inning games that their team won,which turned those into previously unheard of games in which position players pitchedfor both teams.

• Before this rule, there had been one game in the expansion era — all 62 seasons of it — in which a position player pitched and finished a nine-inning game in which his team threw a shutout. That’s now happened twice just in the last month, with Luis González(Giants) and Hanser Alberto (Dodgers) doing those honors.

• And finally, there was July 5 — the first day in history when position players pitched for five different teams.For the record, I didn’t call all of them (or any of them).

So is this still fun? At the All-Star Game in Los Angeles, The Athletic asked a bunch of players. Here’s a sampling — first from guys who remain fans of it.

Brewers reliever Devin Williams: “I like seeing them get on the mound. I feel like they think that it’s so easy — and then they get out there. Like, for instance, (Mike) Brosseau pitched (for the Brewers), and I’ve never seen him sweating so much. … He’s always talking crap to me. But now he’s had to get on the mound a few times. He knows how hard it is.”

Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud: “It makes it fun. Like, the game is out of hand, obviously. And it just brings back a little fun dynamic back into it when the score is out of hand, instead of it kind of being boring and everybody just wants to get (the game) over.”

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks: “I want to see them pitch because that means a pitcher might get an opportunity to hit, like David Robertson did earlier. I haven’t gotten a hit in the big leagues yet. So that’s all I’m looking for.”

But then there were the realists.

Pirates closer David Bednar: “Personally, I don’t really like it, just because it means we’re losing. It was fun, you know, whenever it was every now and again.”

Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano: “If I see it once a season, that’s enough. … Like (then) it’s kind of funny. It’s kind of unique. You could have a laugh about it. But if you’re seeing it once a month, that’s way too much.”

Yankees closer Clay Holmes:“It’s definitely not ideal. I don’t think it’s great. When it’s every once in a while, I understand it. But I don’t know. It’s not something I want to see continuing.”

So what’s the solution? Here’s a shocker. Holmes thinks the 13-pitcher roster cap isthe solution.

“I do think there needs to be a cap to the pitching staff,” he said. “I mean, you can’t just kind of go crazy with a pitcher, about the way they’re used. I don’t know. It’s definitely not going to be easy. But like I said, I don’t like to see it a ton. It’s going to take some good brainpower.”

Well, if we’re in need of brainpower, I’m happy to help. So here’s my take.

I know there’s an argument that even at this rate, the average team is running a position player to the mound only three or four times a year, so what’s the big deal? But if even I’ve reached the point where the position-player pitching yuks don’t seem quite as yuk-ified, I think baseball should tighten its (obviously) lax rules on when these guys can pitch. So maybe …

• Only when their team is losing by 10 runs or more?

• No more than twice per team per season?

• Impose some sort of roster penalty every time a team does it?

I’m open to anything. Have an idea of your own? Let me know in the comments section. If it’s good enough, I’ll make you famous. But it’s time to try something.

“It can be a nice novelty, every once in a while, to see a position player pitching at the end of a blowout,” said one of the executives quoted earlier. “But I don’t think anybody thinks it’s good for baseball to have five of them pitching in one day.”

So where is it all leading?

Before we gaze into the future, let’s review. What is baseball trying to accomplish, not simply with this rule but in its vision of delivering more of What Fans Say They Want?

A game with better rhythm and pace?The pitch clock, coming to a big-league park near you, could solve that issue all by itself.

More great athletes doing their great-athlete stuff?Turn up the efforts to keep attracting those sorts of athletes to play your sport. Then figure out ways to nudge the strikeout rate downward so the ball might actually be in play a few times an inning.

Fewer pitching changes?It might take a while. But you’d figure that eventually, the caps on how many relievers are hanging out in any given bullpen would help with that.

More starting-pitching matchups to get stoked about? Hmmm. Tough one. But ideally, these last three categories would all be tied together.

There is no magic potion that can create more action, more balls in play and less swinging-and-missing. So what baseball ought to do is what it’s already aspiring to do:

Tweak various rules, as subtly as possible, to see if they can have an impact on what I like to call the One True Outcome: a strikeout rate that is gobbling up — and covering up — way too many of the best parts of this sport.

Case in point: The All-Star Game. On Monday, the most magnetic hitters in baseball captivate and energize the masses with a Home Run Derby fireworks display that shows off just how gifted they are. Then on Tuesday, put those same magnetic hitters up against a procession of untouchable pitchers — and nobody on the National League team even gets a hit for three hours.

So this sport needs to restore its balance. And that’s where this 13-pitcher limit comes in. It’s part of the balancing act — to forceteams to go back to an age when starting pitchers were dueling with the cleanup hitter four times a game, and not just maxing out until it was time for the fire-breathing bullpen onslaught to begin.

But clearly, there needs to be more. … More incentives for teams to lean on starters longer. (Did anyone saythe Double Hook?)… Evolving shift limits that open up the field and (gasp) bring back the line drive and the ground-ball single. … A clearly stated long-term vision that allows managers and general managers to plan for the changes ahead. … A deal with the union that gets players on board with all of it.

I hear people say all the time:Leave the game alone! Everyone will adjust in time!Really? How’s that working out? Modern front offices are too good. They’re the ones who have pushed this sport through more change in the last 10 years than it had seen organically in the previous 100 years.

That means it’s time for baseball to push back. So welcome to the world of 13-pitcher roster limits. A month and a half in, it hasn’t accomplished much besides elevating Hanser Alberto’s Cy Young Award credentials. But give it a few years — and maybe it can be part of baseball’s path to delivering more of What Fans Say They Want.

By which we all mean: A more entertaining tomorrow.

— The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt contributed to this report.

(Top photo of DH/first baseman Mike Ford pitching on June 30: Rich Schultz / Getty Images)