MLB’s decline in popularity, losing its distinction as America’s pastime, is due in large part to the game’s aesthetic, which has changed considerably in recent years. There’s no denying today’s game, increasingly predicated on home runs and strikeouts, is less exciting than the brand of baseball most of us grew up on with small-ball tactics (RIP, stolen bases) all but eradicated from the sport. The growing trend toward shifting, playing left-handed hitters to pull by crowding the right side of the infield, has been a big part of that sea change with batting averages falling off a cliff (teams hit a combined .244 with an anemic 23.2-percent strikeout rate last season).
Proponents of the shift would argue the onus is on hitters to go the other way, but that’s easier said than done, particularly with a good segment of the pitching population now throwing well over 100 mph. Simply put, MLB’s emphasis on the three true outcomes (home run, walk or strikeout), eschewing finesse and precision for velocity and raw power, has rendered the sport all but unwatchable with fewer balls hit in play than ever before.
According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, MLB may be plotting to eliminate the shift, among other rule changes, in 2023. Of course, that would take buy-in from players, who, as evidenced by the league’s ongoing labor dispute, have not been cooperative of late.
The proposed shift ban was met with mixed reactions on social media. While some were ready to bid the shift bon voyage, others weren’t as eager to press the eject button, expressing concern it could give batters an unfair advantage.
Per Nightengale, the league is also eyeing a pitch clock, a concept MLB has workshopped in both the minor leagues and spring training. Purists will no doubt dismiss these changes as rash and pandering to a younger audience (in the age of smartphones and social media, millennials by and large don’t have the attention span to sit through a four-hour pitcher’s duel), but with plummeting attendance figures and television ratings in similar freefall, baseball may not have a choice.
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