Major League Baseball's controversial foreign substance inspections have irritated pitchers and disrupted the rhythm of games. And former big leaguer Jerry Hairston Jr. hopes league officials soon realize the rules and process need to be improved.
"I understand what they're trying to do and why they're doing it. I think they need to go about it in a different way," Hairston told the Reiter Than You show on Thursday. "I don't like pitchers being checked every time they come off the mound -- especially relievers -- in front of everybody. It seems like they're going through a TSA screening right at the first or third baseline. They need to find a better way to do it. I don't like the fact that managers can ask umpires to check an individual pitcher in the middle of an inning.
"We saw that happen in Philadelphia with [Nationals ace] Max Scherzer and [Phillies manager] Joe Girardi. That needs to stop, because we're starting to make a mockery of it. They're going to have to make changes -- I mean, it was embarrassing the last couple nights. Hopefully down the road, instead of checking every pitcher, you have to have visual evidence or probable cause to go check that pitcher... If you do it every single time a pitcher enters the game -- a starting pitcher gets checked multiple times -- they need to get rid of that..."
Under MLB's new guidelines, any player caught in possession of a foreign substance will be automatically ejected and suspended 10 games, with pay. Starting pitchers will undergo at least one mandatory check per game, and relievers must be checked either at the end of the inning when entering the game or when they are taken out of the game.
In a recent interview with The Athletic, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred expressed overall satisfaction with the crackdown, arguing that the data "suggests we are making progress with respect to the issues" and that inspections during the first two days went "really well."
According to Baseball Reference, batters are hitting a scant .238 this season, the second-lowest league average since the mound was lowered following the 1968 season. In addition, the current 24-percent strikeout rate is the highest in MLB history.
The entire MLB conversation between Hairston and Reiter can be accessed in the audio player above.
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