Former American League Cy Young Award winner CC Sabathia went on an expletive-laced rant on the most recent episode of his podcast regarding the Tony La Russa-Yermín Mercedes controversy.
Sabathia, who was among those who believe La Russa has handled the situation poorly, did make an interesting, perhaps half-hearted suggestion in his rant.
"If you're going to put a f****** position player in there to pitch, guess what? If he's gonna lob s*** over the plate, we gon' f****** tee off. Put a 10-run rule up their cuz'. If ya'll don't wanna see people get embarrassed and you don't wanna see position players pitch and people swing on 3-0 counts and all that s***, then make it a 10-run rule. Then the f****** game would be over and you don't have these stupid ass unwritten rules."
Monday, Mercedes was facing Willians Astudillo of the Twins, normally a catcher but forced into pitching because his team was long since out of the game. With his team already leading 15-4, Mercedes swung on a 3-0 pitch that was 47 mph, and hit a 429-foot home run.
La Russa, 76, referred to the decision by Mercedes as "a big mistake," saying that the decision to swing was unsportsmanlike and disrespecting the game. The next night, Mercedes had a ball thrown behind him by Twins reliever Tyler Duffey. La Russa would say after the game that he didn't have any issue with Duffey's pitch, saying that "it wasn't obvious" that he was attempting to hit or scare Mercedes. The umpires disagreed, as Duffey was ejected.
Related
But this raises a larger issue: when, if ever, should you take your foot off the gas?
Mercedes is a 28-year-old rookie, one that currently leads the American League in batting average and is a legitimate All-Star candidate. When you add in that he can become a free agent after the season, Mercedes should be as motivated as ever not to give a single at-bat away.
But even if it had been someone more accomplished, such as Tim Anderson, should he have had to take a meatball that would allow him to pad his stats? And if that expectation is made for the team that's ahead, does the one who is behind also have to stop trying offensively? After all, the Twins added their fourth run on an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.
One solution would be to put in a rule that if you're down by 10 or more runs after seven innings, the game ends. That may feel a bit like Little League, but so does telling players that they can't attempt to pad their stats late in blowouts because it might hurt the feelings of their opponents.
If you left it up to a team to decide whether or not to forfeit after seven innings, probably no one would ever give up. It would create a field day for sports talk radio. But if teams know that the game will automatically end if they aren't down by less than 10 runs after seven innings, there is some finality to things.
There will be those that suggest a mercy rule is anti-competitive, and that they'd like to see the game go nine innings for the off chance that trailing team makes a comeback. The reality, though, is that the last time a team erased a 10-run deficit or larger was in June of 2016, when the Seattle Mariners came back from down 12-2 to defeat the San Diego Padres 16-13. It's feels safe to assume that less than 1% of teams that go down by 10 runs come back and win the game. Most that do have cut the deficit to below 10 runs by the end of the seventh inning.
From here, there is a novelty to seeing position players pitch. If the game's going to be ugly, might as well make it ridiculous. But as long as the game goes on, you can't expect the team batting to stop trying, especially if you've kind of already turned the game into a joke by having a non-pitcher on the mound.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram