Main League Baseball handed two new guidelines modifications unanimously by the competitors committee on Tuesday, experiences The Athletic. The modifications are extra like minor tweaks, nevertheless, and the on-field product will not actually look totally different in 2025 in comparison with 2024 because of this.
Let’s have a look.
Tightening the shift rule
As most baseball followers know by now, the acute shifts we had been seeing a couple of years in the past are actually banned. Groups should not have greater than two infielders on both facet of second base when the pitch is thrown. Groups will go so far as they will when scouting requires it, however the days of stacking three infielders on the best facet towards heavy-pull lefties are over.
If a participant was deemed to have violated the rule — it could be a second baseman or shortstop crossing second too early — the penalty up to now was both accepting the results of the play or getting an computerized ball for the batter. The brand new rule is far more durable on the protection.
The rule change now says {that a} workforce violating the shift rule will see the batter granted first base free of charge and any baserunners will transfer up a base. The fielder could be charged an error whereas the batter would not get a plate look.
Clearly, that is fairly the deterrent.
Purposely over-running a base
The following change is to fight a play that had been employed by a couple of groups in 2024, notably the Yankees. The situation right here to contemplate when there are runners on first and third with two outs and there is a groundball that causes the protection to seize the drive play at second to finish the inning. If there’s to be a detailed play at second, groups had been instructing runners to not decelerate and simply preserve operating previous the bottom as if it had been first.
The speculation was that if the participant beat the throw at second and was dominated protected, the runner on third base would then rating a run earlier than the third out. Inevitably the runner going by the bag at second would then be dominated out of the baseline and the third out, however the run would nonetheless depend.
The rule tweak right here offers the replay official the flexibility to rule whether or not or not the runner heading by second base on this situation has deserted the baseline earlier than the runner scores. If that’s the case, the run wouldn’t depend.
Once more, it is a small tweak, however it eliminates the flexibility for groups to attempt to recreation the system right here and sneak a run throughout the board. As an alternative of simply sprinting by the bag prefer it’s first base, the runners might want to return and deal with the play like they usually would at second and both maintain the bag or spherical it and head towards the following base.
