On his way to winning a Gold Glove in 2020, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert caught fly balls hit to the left fielder so routinely that Eloy Jimenez at one point during a game in August simply stood motionless, hands clasped over his belt buckle, watching — with a “here we go again” look on his face — as Robert caught a ball that otherwise might have hit Jimenez.
It became a running joke. Who needs a left fielder when you have Robert in center?
Three years later, could it become a strategy, even the next big trend in defensive planning for teams adjusting to life in 2023 without the extreme infield shifts that have been outlawed for the first time?
The rule change requires all four infielders to be on the dirt before the ball is pitched — and two on each side of second base.
But nothing in the new rule says a team can’t plug an outfielder into that short-right-field spot on the grass for a shift against a dead-pull lefty hitter and ask the center fielder to cover as much of the vacated spot as he’s able.
Talk about drama. Talk about a sight to behold.
Talk about high tension, higher risk.
And acreage.
“I don’t think any team would dream of doing that,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said. “I would be shocked.”
Then prepare to be shocked. At least in spring training.
Because a lot of the buzz at baseball’s two sets of offseason meetings involved how teams might build rosters to adjust to a handful of new rules — and some of that involved ways to compensate for the inability to boost run prevention with infield shifts.
Some teams were said to be looking internally at ways to make best use of athletic outfielders in some kind of shift to help mitigate the infield restrictions.
And in the smart-guy world of baseball analytics, you can count on somebody coming up with something they might be willing to try, at least in spring training — at least against a specific Carlos Santana- or Kyle Schwarber-level pull hitter — to test the high risk of the occasional jam-shot flare to left turning into a triple instead of a single.
Especially with the change to a more balanced major-league schedule that will mean every team faces every other team at least three games, which means facing potentially every dangerous, extreme pull hitter.
“Everyone’s going to have those thoughts,” said Cubs president Jed Hoyer, who just signed a center fielder, Cody Bellinger, who covered 30% more ground than average on fly balls during his 2019 Gold Glove year (according to baseballsavant.com).
“We’ve talked about doing it before — do you go five infielders against a pitcher or something like that because of the ground-ball rate?” he said. “There’s real egg-on-your-face risk when you start playing two outfielders against a non-pitcher.”
Certainly, it would take the right personnel to even consider it. Robert? Even Bellinger?
And teams certainly would be more selective in choosing which hitter to deploy it against. Think former Cubs Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo, and Santana, who saw the shift more than any hitter in the majors in ’22.
It probably will even take the right park to make the risk worth it. So forget trying it at massive Coors Field or Yankee Stadium — where the outfield gets especially big as soon as you get left of the short porch in right.
“I don’t see us doing that too comfortably,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who mused others might at least try. “I’ve seen a lot of things that people have chosen to deploy that for good reason have worked.”
A team such as the Cardinals, with athletic, strong fielding, might have the personnel across the board to unleash its geek department on devising an effective outfield shift — though Cards president John Mozeliak was noncommittal when asked about it recently because he said he still needed to “study” it. The Red Sox might have the small-enough left field (and high wall) to do it.
But Chicago might be as good a place as any to consider the possibilities, especially on the South Side — where an urgency to win is paired with a team that was among the worst in the field in ’22 and didn’t add any of the marquee middle-infield free agents who were available. No hiding those subpar infielders in a more traditional shift anymore.
But the Sox do have the Gold Glove center fielder who already has shown at least a willingness to play two outfield positions at once.
“Yeah, he’s pretty good,” Sox general manager Rick Hahn said.
Good enough to consider trying such an extreme strategy? Hahn, who might have a few bigger, more immediate issues to address, still was looking for roster additions when discussing this one and wasn’t ready to talk about the plausibility of his club trying to do it.
“Certainly you’ve got a lot of creative minds in the game,” Hahn said, “and if there’s the opportunity to exploit an inefficiency, it’ll be exploited.”
The Cubs have newly added Bellinger in center, a newly crowned Gold Glove winner in left (Ian Happ) and a multiple Golden Glove winner from Japan in right (Seiya Suzuki). They also have some significant contact-centric pitchers in their rotation, including ground-ball guys.
And this: They have the luxury of having added Gold Glove shortstop Dansby Swanson as a free agent, which pushes last year’s standout shortstop, Nico Hoerner, to second — or into the outfield?
Against, say, the Phillies — with Schwarber and lefty slugger Bryce Harper — could the Cubs start the versatile Hoerner in the outfield and drop him into that short-right spot that he manned so effectively last year when they shifted the infield?
At bandbox Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, it might sound almost reasonable. On the other hand, there is that pesky 355-foot depth in the left-field corner at Wrigley even if the overall outfield size isn’t especially big.
“We’re gonna have to weigh that risk-reward and what that looks like when the ball goes in the corner, and the guy’s running for 30 seconds to get to the ball,” Hoyer said.
Talk about adding more hits and excitement to the game. Talk about the spirit of the rules changes.
“There’s risk, but I bet some teams will give it a shot against the right hitters,” Hoyer said.
If it actually works well enough for enough teams, it might not last long. One executive from the commissioner’s office involved in the rules changes suggested that if such unforeseen and unintended consequences were to result, the rules could be changed again.
For now, it’s a thought simmering in beakers in smart-guy labs across baseball.
And whether it boils into something that stays hot into the regular season, it’ll get discussed, said newly hired Tigers president Scott Harris, the former Cubs executive.
Brace yourself once games start up in Arizona and Florida in a few weeks.
“I imagine it’ll happen in spring training a lot as we adjust to the new environment,” Harris said.
