Major League Baseball to test anti-shift rules in the minor leagues this season

LOS ANGELES — The left-handed slugger comes to bat, and the modern infield shifts. The third baseman moves to second base. The second baseman moves into short right field. The left side of the infield is manned solely by the shortstop.

Should Major League Baseball put a stop to that? Experiments in the minor leagues this year will inform a decision.

In Double-A games this year, teams will be required to use a minimum of four infielders, all of whom must have both feet in front of the outfield grass. The results will be evaluated during the first half of the season, and in the second half teams could be required to station two infielders on each side of second base.

The experiments are designed to return singles to the game, and with them the excitement of stolen bases and multi-hit rallies. Teams averaged 8.04 hits per game last season. Since 1908, the only season in which teams have averaged fewer hits per game was 1968, after which MLB lowered the height of the pitcher’s mound to induce more offense.

The league is increasingly concerned that the modern game has deteriorated into a festival of home runs, strikeouts and walks, with defensive action on the decline because relatively few balls are put in play.

In each team’s last at-bat of the 2020 World Series, the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays combined to put two balls into play among the final seven batters: home run, walk, strikeout, double play, fly out, strikeout, strikeout.

“We are listening to our fans,” Michael Hill, the MLB senior vice president of onfield operations, said in a statement. “This effort is an important step towards bringing to life rules changes aimed at creating more action and improving the pace of play.”