Baseball’s shifting culture set to play out in ASG
WASHINGTON » David Ortiz can now laugh, sort of, at the shifting culture of baseball. For Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and most every other All-Star hitter, dealing with different defensive alignments is just part of the game.
Tune in Tuesday night and there’s no telling where fans will see fielders at Nationals Park. Especially in what’s become merely an exhibition — why not try a five-man outfield?
Count Joey Votto among the boppers who’d love to do away with infielders clustered on the grass.
“From someone who’s really been dinged by the shift, I would welcome it,” the Cincinnati first baseman said Monday. “Once they started shifting more without question, I adjusted my approach and you have to or else you get burned by it because .290 turns into .250 turns into .220 like nothing.”
But the career .312 hitter can see why Major League Baseball might want to avoid delving into rules to define defensive positions.
“I like the idea of a dynamic ballplayer. It’s really hard to shift against a really fast left-handed hitter for a multitude of reasons,” he said. “Removing the shift may lend itself to the lefthanded pull hitter that hits flyballs, groundballs and strikes out a ton. I’m not sure if Major League Baseball is excited about that.”
To Ortiz, these overloaded infields are reshaping the sport. Not in a good way, either.
“It seems crazy, it seems like it’s taking some fun part of the game away,” the retired Red Sox slugger said Sunday before managing the Futures Game.
“It seems like there are 20 guys playing defense against you,” Big Papi said, playfully estimating shifts took “like 500 hits away from me.”
There’s been talk that baseball, concerned that less action in the field could translate to fewer fans in the stands, might consider a rule regarding shifts.
Perhaps it would mean only two infielders on each side of the diamond. Or possibly they’d all be required to stay on the dirt.
“Maybe something where you can only shift a couple guys each inning,” Arenado offered.
Of course, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Luis Severino and other aces might see it a bit differently.
“I am extremely proshift, especially against lefties because I pound lefties in and then changeups away,” Dodgers righthander Ross Stripling said.