Strikeouts top hits, lowest average since ‘72
NEW YORK — The mostheard sound at major league ballparks this year was “Strike three!”
A whiff of offense would be nice rather than all those nights filled with nonstop whiffs.
Strikeouts will exceed hits over a full season for the first time in major league history. The overall batting average has dropped to its lowest level since 1972, the year before the designated hitter. Lefty hitters — facing smothering defensive shifts — have fared even worse, with their lowest average since 1968, before the pitcher’s mound was lowered.
Starters throw fewer pitches and hard-throwing relievers are changed more frequently. The game has transformed at a dizzying pace.
“We need to thoughtfully review the trends,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday.
Manfred looks ahead to a postseason featuring 20-year-old Atlanta star Ronald Acuna Jr., Boston, the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs and possibly Los Angeles Dodgers, too.
But much of the offseason will be spent analyzing historic changes.
There were 40,196 strikeouts and 40,098 hits through Wednesday, and Ks exceeded hits over a full month for the first time in April, then again in June and September. Before this year, the previous low differential for a full month was in April 2017, when there were 138 more hits than strikeouts, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Strikeouts have set a record for the 11th consecutive season, surpassing last year’s 40,104.
The .248 big league batting average is down seven percentage points from last year and a Steroids Era high of .271 in 1999, part of an all-ornothing approach at the plate. And the .244 average for left-handed hitters is the lowest since .242 in 1968, according to Elias, diminished by defensive shifts placing three infielders on the right side.
No wonder batters swing for the fences.
“Years ago, if a player had more strikeouts than hits, they didn’t get out of Class A ball,” said Dan Duquette, the Baltimore Orioles’ executive vice president of baseball operations, who went on to suggest his solution.
“Ted Williams had some good ideas: three balls and you go to first base; make home plate smaller so you don’t have to defend as much territory,” Duquette said.
“It’s something to consider, because, really, it’s an entertainment business, right? That’s what the fans want to see. It’s a good place to start the discussion. Who am I to argue with the greatest hitter that ever lived?”
Manfred says changes are understandable.
MLB and the union already have been talking. Their challenge is to decide whether narrowly tailored rules changes will counter changes, such as the use of minor league options and the disabled list to expand pitching staffs from 12-13 to what in effect is 17-18 for many clubs. The sides had an agreement in the last round of bargaining to expand the active roster from 25 to 26 from the start of the season through Aug. 31 and to lower it from 40 to 28 from Sept. 1 on, but the players backed out. Most teams would have carried another reliever.
“I think it would have solved an even bigger problem, which is playing games differently in the month of September,” Manfred said. “It was a trade that I was prepared to make at the time I was doing the Basic Agreement. It was a trade I’m prepared to make now.”
One trend players and management like: the average time of a nineinning game has dropped to 3:00:35 from a record 3:05:11 last year, helped by new restrictions on mound visits. Trips to the mound without a pitching change have dropped from 7.41 to 4.00.
“I don’t know if that’s necessarily the criteria as much as has it adversely affected the guys on the mound?” said players’ association head Tony Clark, a former All-Star first baseman. “And the commentary that we’ve heard is no.”