Offense was down in Major League Baseball through the first couple weeks of the 2022 season.
While blustery spring weather was partly to blame for the dip in scoring, the seemingly constant evolution of the ball itself was likely a bigger factor, according to a new report.
Jeff Passan of ESPN reported (Insider subscription required) that the ball appears to be deadened, with fewer home runs being hit and batted-ball data indicating hard-hit balls aren't traveling as far.
The use of a de-juiced ball this season would mark the third consecutive year of declines in what is sometimes referred to as the ball's bounciness. The shift comes after the home run bonanza of 2019, when the league shattered the previous mark for total home runs, set in 2017.
According to Passan, the use of ball humidors in all 30 ballparks -- once reserved only for the Rockies' Coors Field -- is the driving factor behind the more uniform changes in the ball this year.
Last year, the ball was deadened, but the humidors weren't widespread around the league, with only 10 teams using them.
Eno Sarris of The Athletic reported that this year's ball "seems like it's 100% the 2021 deadened ball finally."
The result, according to Passan, is a league-wide dip in runs scored of about 5%, largely attributable to home runs being "way down."
The league was slugging .380 early on, down 12 points from .392 in each of the past two seasons, he added, and scoring was at its lowest since 2015 -- the season MLB reportedly first introduced the juiced ball in the second half.
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