During the 2022 MLB season, position players pitched more than ever before in MLB.
It was part of a new trend by managers, who preferred to preserve their most valuable bullpen arms for higher leverage spots rather than having them pitch in blowouts.
Some fans were fine with that, but others thought that some many position players pitching was against the essence of baseball and MLB.
As a result, the league will be making some changes to prevent games from turning into unexpected home run derbies.
“The competition committee also voted unanimously to allow position players to pitch only in extra innings, in the ninth inning when leading team is up by 10 or more runs or anytime when the trailing team is down by 8 or more,” MLB insider Jesse Rogers tweeted.
The competition committee also voted unanimously to allow position players to pitch only in extra innings, in the ninth inning when leading team is up by 10 or more runs or anytime when the trailing team is down by 8 or more.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) February 13, 2023
The problem with position players taking the mound is that they throw 40-mph meatballs that any rookie-level player would smash for a home run.
MLB, seeing this, decided that there will not be any position players taking the mound unless there are special circumstances.
However, the trailing team can send a position player to pitch anytime as long as the gap with the leading team is at least eight runs.
The situation needed some guidelines and restrictions, otherwise we would have seen something similar to what happened in 2022.
Trailing teams are more likely to use a position player to cover some meaningless outs, but now they know that there will need to be a difference of at least eight runs to entertain the idea.
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