The Shift is Shifting Baseball

This is the first year that the shift is banned in Major League Baseball, and it’s going to take some getting used to. For years teams tried to predict where the batter would hit the ball based on data of all their at bats, but those days have come to an end. The new rules state that the defense must have two defenders on each side of second base, which takes away from the overload on one side that had become so popular and advantageous that it had to be removed from the game.

The shift is when the defense changes their alignment to give the hitter less of a chance to get a hit. For lefties the defense stacks up on the right side of the field because lefties tend to pull the ball to the right. The defending team will have 3 people covering the right side of the infield, while leaving their third basemen to cover the left side of the infield all alone. This leaves less open spaces in the field, resulting in more outs. This season baseball put in a bunch of rules to make the game more action packed, such as a pitch clock to get rid of wasted time, or bigger bases which make it easier to steal a base.

The chart clearly shows the increase in plate appearances that have faced the shift in the last 5 years. Lefties are known to pull the ball more, which is why they face the shift over double the amount of the time as righties.

As stated by Mike Petriello of MLB.com in May of 2018 “No team uses infield shifts more than the Houston Astros.” They led the league in the percentage of plate appearances that they have shifted on each season from 2016–2018. In 2018 they shifted on about 44 percent of all plate appearances. During this time they reached the world series twice, which speaks volumes on how big an impact the shift has on the game. They went back to the World Series in 2021 and 2023, with the help of their strategic playstyle. According to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post “ According to MLB’s Statcast Data, teams shifted 12.1 percent of the time in 2017…In 2020 the Los Angeles Dodgers shifted 55 percent of the time.” (Remind me who won the World Series?) Teams are going to realize the two most winningest baseball teams of the last 7 years, have led the league in shifts when they won.

This is an example shown by the FoxSports broadcast of the defense setting up to overload the right side of the field against a lefty batter, which deploys defenders where he most frequently hits the ball.

During the Winter Meetings when the idea of banning the shift was proposed it was no surprise to see the managers of the teams who most often utilize it voice their opinions against banning the strategy.

“Where do you think I fall on that one?”, said Aj Hinch, manager of the Houston Astros. “Change is not necessarily the strength of our game, and when things changed toward the shift a little bit, we fought it and now we’re going to change in shifting if that’s the case.”

“Eliminate them. Do it now. It’s crazy. You’ve got my vote. I don’t like them,” said Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost.

It’s interesting to look at the two managers’ different opinions, especially when the Astros have been a powerhouse since 2016, winning two championships and losing another two World Series’. On the other hand the Kansas City Royals haven’t made the playoffs since 2016, so it’s not a surprise to see them in favor of banning a major aspect of the game.

Ilan Kimel 23, a graduate from Marist college said “I wish this rule change was implemented while I was still on the baseball team. I’m a lefty so I faced plenty of shifts and I constantly tried to get better at hitting the ball the other way. Having that much more open space gives the hitter much more confidence that if I hit the ball hard I have a chance for a hit, rather than hitting it in the middle of three defenders. The introduction of the shift added a whole new aspect to the game of baseball over the years. Before games we would use scouting reports to plan out our alignment for each batter, so I’m sure current players are happy they don’t need to study as much before game day.

The shift proved to be too powerful, as the successful teams were the teams who shifted the most in history, and teams who had become irrelevant for years wanted it banned immediately. This year, batting averages should get boosted as there are more holes on the field for batters to put the ball in play. The beautiful thing about sports is the sport is always evolving, so this new rule change is just another “shift” in the game we love.

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