In MLB, there are signs that nature is healing
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Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols made his big league pitching debut for the Cardinals in a rout over the Giants on May 15.
If you live in a major city, the air above you is likely rife with particulates that will shorten your life span. That was not nearly as true in 2020 as it is now. Human industrial activity slowed as the coronavirus accelerated across the globe. Transportation by air and land and sea was grounded. The pandemic froze us, allowing nature to heal. We could breathe again.
Undeterred, industrial activity largely resumed in 2021. Metropolitan air quality sank back into its comfortable rut. We returned to work and picked up right where we left off, making and sharing a bunch of ironic “nature is healing” memes. Whether you’re more interested in N2O or NO2, eventually all you can do is laugh.
In Major League Baseball, I don’t believe 2021 was the year we could say the league had emerged from the pandemic. Last season was odd.
Start with the personnel. A total of 1,373 players appeared in a game in 2021, a record, and 86 more than appeared in a game in 2019. Without adding a single expansion team, MLB added two to three rosters’ worth of players to its ranks.
Injuries were largely to blame. Two teams, the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, lost more than 2,200 man-games to the injured list. As recently as 2017, only one team was above 1,500. We knew that lengthening the regular season from 60 games in 2020 to 162 in 2021 would be consequential to the health of players whose bodies were untrained for a season so long. The only question was how dire the consequences would be. Someone had to fill in for all those injured major leaguers, and a lot of Baseball-Reference.com pages were minted in the process.
Not only were there more rookies on the field in 2021, they weren’t very good. By batting average, last season was the worst for rookie hitters since 2000. By onbase percentage and slugging, it was the worst since 2014. Scouts marveled at the disparity between rookie pitchers — whose statistical performance was relatively consistent with seasons past — and position players. The penalty for losing the 2020 minor league season to the pandemic treated the two groups unequally.
In many ways, 2022 has seen a return to the status quo. The rate of non-COVID injured list absences is not alarming. Rookie hitters are not embarrassing themselves en masse, relative to seasons past at least. The Dodgers and New York Yankees are leading their divisions.
And, in another sign things are back to normal, the gap between the best and the worst MLB teams has reverted to its pre-pandemic chasm.
Seven of the 30 teams were on pace to win 100 games through Tuesday, with an eighth team (the Angels) on pace to win 99. Four teams are on pace to lose 100. Those numbers pass the eye test. Anecdotally, it feels like each day brings another painfully lopsided game, as if the lip service Commissioner Rob Manfred paid to competitive balance during the MLB-instituted lockout was more than just lip service. The St. Louis Cardinals’ margin of victory was so large in one recent game that Albert Pujols pitched an inning. Nature is healing.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Anti-tanking measures were written into the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, a fan-friendly and player-friendly nod to teams who simply refused to participate in free agency. Are they not working?
It’s certainly too soon to say. The CBA went into effect in the middle of the free agency period, at a time when many of the top players were already off the board. The Dodgers’ Opening Day player payroll stood at $281 million by one estimate, nearly six times as large as that of the Oakland A’s ($48 million). That ought to change next year.
In light of the last two seasons, being able to complain about competitive balance is a luxury for a baseball fan. And if it doesn’t change in the next few months, perhaps Pujols can at least develop a curveball.