The use of analytics in baseball has been a topic of debate for years, with the league making new rules to counteract its use in the game (the banning of infield shifts).
While advanced data and analytics helped multiple smaller-market teams gain an edge at the start of the numerical revolution, beginning with the A’s in the Moneyball era, most big-league squads now have beefed-up analytics departments, leveling the playing field in that regard.
It is part of the reason why MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says that the analytical movement in baseball wasn’t worth the “damage” he says it did to the sport.
“Once everybody’s doing it, that little margin that maybe you’re getting…I am sure that whatever that margin was at one point in time, whatever it is today, it sure as heck is not worth the damage that was done to the game over a period of time,” Manfred said, via Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
The comment came after Manfred told the story of an unnamed MLB owner who claims they spent a week with their analytics department, and essentially disregarded it as not worth the trouble.
“Well, you know, I got a lot of smart guys down there,” the owner said, per Manfred’s retelling. “But I am absolutely convinced that analytics is an arms race to nowhere.”
Manfred says, via Drellich, that the quote has become a favorite of his because of his agreement with it.
Analytics and the use of technology in an effort to maximize player development and on-field performance has been an “arms race” to countless success stories in the league, leading to analytical minds filling up front offices and helping construct championship teams like the Astros, while other teams like the Dodgers maximize its use while complementing it with a big-market payroll. The Rays, a team consistently seen as on the cutting edge of analytics, fell to the Dodgers in the 2020 Fall Classic despite a miniscule payroll.
But many argue that it has led to a less enticing watch, and that analytics have led to the surge of the three true outcomes, less balls in play, and more inaction during games, leading Manfred and the league to institute new measures this offseason to increase the pace of play. Clearly, Manfred holds some belief that analytics led to the need for such changes, and isn’t much of a fan of its impact on modern baseball.