Power way down in majors during April

Last season, dwindling batting averages put baseball in a panic and prompted a midseason change in the enforcement of rules banning sticky stuff by pitchers.

The crackdown was awkward — remember Gerrit Cole stumbling over a question on Spider Tack? Or Max Scherzer defiantly beginning to disrobe during an in-game check by umpires? Funny enough, it also worked, with batting average rising from .232 through April 30 to .244 by season’s end.

In 2022, even with the designated hitter added to the National League, the hits are missing again — and suddenly, the power has gone out, too. This time, the culprit doesn’t look so straightforward.

The batting average across the majors this April was a lousy .231, once again on pace to fall under the record low of .237 set in The Year of the Pitcher in 1968. After several years of surging home run totals, batters are slugging a measly .369 and averaging 4.03 runs per game.

Even with last June’s crackdown on illegal grip aids, the balance of power may still be tilted too strongly toward pitchers. Two lockout-related factors likely tipped those scales in the first month of 2022.

First, the labor stoppage robbed hitters of a full slate of preseason exhibitions.

The evidence is certainly there in the Bronx: New York averaged 3.25 runs per game in the first two weeks of the season and 6.8 runs since.

Second, the shortened spring also prompted short-term changes to prevent pitcher injuries that may also be spurring pitcher effectiveness. After planning to limit staffs to 13 pitchers beginning this season, baseball instead expanded rosters from 26 to 28 players and eliminated limits on available pitchers.