MLB Going Overboard with the Shift

Picture of Paul Goldschmidt taken by Daniel Millhouse

A trend occurring in Major League Baseball is currently being used too often and to the point where it could even be detrimental to the teams. The shift.

These days, teams are stacking one side of the field with extra fielders to cut down on the possibility of hits falling in for particular pull hitters. Most of the time the shift is applied to left-handed hitters because teams are nervous to pull the first baseman too far from his base. When a lefty steps up to the plate, a shortstop (sometimes the third baseman) will shift over to where the second baseman would normally be set up at. The second baseman would then shift over to shallow right field to prevent line drives and bloops from falling in.

Now the shift isn't a new concept. It was applied in the 1920's against Cy Williams and once again used against Ted Williams in 1946. In the 1990's, current Cubs manager Joe Madden who was a bench coach for the Angels back then, asked the Angels manager Terry Collins if he could apply the shift against Ken Griffey Jr. and the rest is history.

Sabermetrics came into play as well as every mathematician started analyzing spray charts of hitters and coming up with ways they believed to stop pull hitters. Early adopter of sabermetrics, general manager Billy Beane saw his Oakland A's have some playoff success with a low payroll and other teams jumped on the sabermetrics bandwagon. This lead to the shift being used more frequently. How much more frequently? In 2010, the shift was used in 2,464 times. In 2014...13,296 times. There were increases in 2015 and 2016 has seen even more shifts being used in the small sample size that is available.

The problem is the shift is not the perfect answer to teams reducing runs. In fact it could actually be hampering them. Teams rarely practice the shift defense at practices or during Spring Training and confusion can often hit the players on the field about what their roles are. This is amplified when there are runners on base.

Many times when a lefty hitter is at bat and the shift is applied, a base runner could find himself at an advantage. Third basement don't practice turning double plays as a middle infielder so basic grounders that would have led to two outs lead to only one instead.

Other times a grounder that is hit into the shallow right field area leads to the runner taking TWO bases because a pitcher's first reaction is to move to first base. The shortstop/third baseman who is covering the left side of the field covers second base on a grounder to the right and now the runner finds himself with no one covering third. In a foot race between a runner and a fielder who also has to receive a throw from one of the other fielders, the base runner will almost always win unless they're a Molina brother.

Extra bases, especially if there is only one out usually equals runs.

"In my opinion, you shouldn't be able to have three infielders on one side of the infield," Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez once said in an interview with MLB.com. "That, to me, is an illegal defense."

The rule book barely touches on the placement of players on the field. Other than where the catcher and pitcher are placed, the rules don't mandate where the other seven fielders have to play. Now this is not to say that the shift should be made illegal, but taking a look at some of the evidence, it's easy to say that it's overused and isn't saving the runs that the MLB managers think it does. In fact a study done in 2014 says that at most, the shift may have save a total of 27 runs in the 13,296 times it was applied.

The shift has also taken away some big moments in player's careers. Nathan Eovaldi, a pitcher for the New York Yankees was tossing a no-hitter on April 25 this year. Taking it to the seventh inning, the Texas Rangers Nomar Mazara hit a simple ground ball that should have been out number one in the inning. Instead it went through for a base hit. It wasn't a hard hit grounder and what made the situation worse was that it would have been right at the shortstop if everyone was playing where they normally do. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. In fact it happens quite often.

In a bizarre incident, San Diego Padres Andrew Cashner was angry that a hitter on the St. Louis Cardinals actually tried to defeat the shift by bunting. In a game that Cashner pitched on April 22, the fielders shifted to the right side, leaving the third basemen manning the area between where the third baseman and shortstop normally cover. The hitter bunted the ball down the line and almost managed turning it into a hit, but it just barely went foul. Cashner who sprinted from the mound to the line and picked up the ball yelled over at the hitter and started pounding the ball in his glove. He clearly didn't like the bunt. TOUGH. If your team employs the shift then be ready for hitters to find ways to work around it and adapt. If the shift is fair play, so are bunts and going the other way with a pitch. Don't be a poor sport and whine when a hitter doesn't volunteer to hit into your shift.

Baseball like many sports is an evolving game that adapts with the times. Unfortunately in this case it also appears to be taking the heart out of the defensive game. The intentions of the founders of the game, all several people who have some partial credit in inventing baseball, never meant for the fun to be taken out of the game. This is a concept that has been taken too far and to an extreme. I wouldn't suggest banning it, but I do suggest that sabermetrics not be used as the be-all end-all in baseball.