Read more on baseball’s starting pitching “existential crisis.” Two of the sport’s most prominent pitchers weigh in.
What could baseball do to save one of baseball’s most endangered species — the starting pitcher?
You know what we mean. We mean the kind of starting pitcher who roamed Planet Baseball for a century — not just starting games but finishing games, or at least pitching deep into the late innings. What could this sport do to bring back that guy?
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The Athletic spent the past eight weeks asking pitchers, executives and coaching staffs that question. We’ve collected every rule change idea we heard. Now here they all are, beginning with four you can read lots more about in the deeper dive we took into this issue.
Let us know what you think — and what you’d do!
1. Require every starter to pitch six innings
There are more nuanced ideas out there. But this would be the simplest. Don’t just provide incentives for starters to pitch more innings. Require it.
To be clear, there would be exceptions for extenuating circumstances: Injury … pitchers who give up 10 runs … pitchers who can’t escape a 40-pitch inning … pitchers who throw 100 pitches before they get through six … etc. Those circumstances could be negotiated later.
Like many of these ideas, this could also be phased in over time, starting with a requirement that every starter had to get through three innings and gradually increasing by an inning every year.
2. The Double Hook
Want to dangle incentives for teams to keep their starters in the game? The Double Hook provides the simplest out there: When your starting pitcher exits, your designated hitter exits (or has to move to a position on the field).
Or there’s the variation of the Double Hook used last year in MLB’s favorite rule change test lab, the independent Atlantic League: If your starter doesn’t get through at least five innings, your DH has to leave the game. But if the starter goes five-plus, you keep your DH all game.
3. No more than six relievers per team
The league now has a cap of eight relievers (13 pitchers total per team). One way to push starting pitchers deeper in games is to trim that cap to six relievers (11 total pitchers) — or even five (10 total).
Those roster limits would almost certainly be phased in gradually over several years — from eight relievers … to seven … to six … and possibly five. The sport would essentially be rewriting the job description of the modern reliever, so that’s only fair.
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But how would roster limits stop the parade of five relievers a game? If a team had only six relievers on its roster, it would wreak havoc to use them all every night, right? So the long start would become much more valuable.
4. Ban the sweeper
The sweeper may be the hottest new pitch in baseball, but it also has been identified by your friendly neighborhood arm surgeons as a pitch that appears to place extra stress on the elbow. If MLB’s ongoing study of the health of pitchers confirms that, is it possible the league could act to ban the sweeper — and possibly other pitches deemed dangerous?
Think of it this way: The NFL outlaws dangerous blocking and tackling techniques. Baseball has taken steps to stop other dangerous actions on the field, like the home-plate collision. So why is it out of the realm that the sport could consider banning a pitch if there is evidence it’s causing serious injuries?
5. Outlaw every pitch over 94 mph
Sure, it’s cool to see a guy launch a fastball at 102 mph. But does it get less cool if every team has four guys who do that? Does it almost get worrisome if the average pitcher now throws close to 95 mph?
On one hand, outlawing all pitches over 94 seems unlikely, impractical and wildly unpopular. On the other hand, if that MLB medical study ties extreme velocity to the rash of pitching injuries, wouldn’t the league have to look at that option? Don’t bet your autographed photo of Paul Skenes on that happening. But has there been talk about this? There has.
6. When your starter goes six, your team gets a bonus sub
If the league wants to create incentives beyond the Double Hook to convince teams to keep their starters in games, nothing should be off the table. Don’t you think?
No less an authority than Max Scherzer laid out this idea: If the starter gets through six innings, you get an extra pinch hitter … or pinch runner … or defensive replacement … after which the player who was subbed out can re-enter the game. There’s no end to other possible options. So feel free to suggest your own in the comments.
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7. If the starter goes six innings, he gets a free timeout
A pitching coach suggested this one. If a starter pitches deep into a game, why isn’t there something in it for him, too?
It’s exhausting pitching all those innings. And those clocks are ticking. So give him a free timeout every inning. (Hey, the hitters get one.) … Or maybe an extra 15 seconds between innings to provide more recovery time … or a couple of extra seconds on the pitch clock in the late innings. That would serve as recognition that the sport understands the physical toll of working more innings than the average starter. We like it.
8. You can use only three pitchers in the first nine innings
A team executive had this idea. It’s fascinating to think about. His point: If your starting pitcher is on fumes, you should be able to take him out before he goes six innings. That’s only fair. But once he leaves, your team should only be allowed to use two more pitchers to cover however many outs are left.
If the idea is to incentivize longer starts, this definitely does that. Ponder the value of, say, a seven-inning start if this rule were in effect. But it also incentivizes teams to employ a whole different kind of relief pitcher — one who has pitches to get both left-handed and right-handed hitters out, one who understands his job is to get through multiple innings.
Likely to happen? Doubtful. But food for thought? It’s a whole three-course meal for thought.
9. Raise the three-batter minimum for relievers
Here’s a brainstorm that’s in the spirit of that last rule. What if, instead of every reliever having to face three hitters, that minimum was six hitters?
What does that have to do with restoring the prominence of the starting pitcher, you ask? Just think more big picture about what the goal is here. The fewer games that turn into a parade of six pitchers throwing 98 mph, the more interesting the sport becomes.
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In surveys, fans say they hate pitching changes. This means you would see fewer of them. Fans also love action … and late-inning comebacks. In today’s fire-breathing bullpen world, those late-inning comebacks sometimes feel impossible. Maybe, in this scenario, not anymore.
10. Shorten the season
Are healthier pitchers also the most rested pitchers? Seems logical. So why isn’t baseball reworking its schedule to provide more rest?
At some point, shouldn’t owners seriously consider pulling the plug on the 162-game schedule and going to 154 — or some other workable number that would create a world where every team has one day off every week? Of course, they know this would create issues with the record book. But if that book could survive the jump from 154 to 162 six decades ago, it can survive a shift back to 154. Right?
This idea has come up in multiple labor negotiations — and never went anywhere, due to owner concerns about lost gate revenue. But maybe those owners should look at how much money they’re paying players on the injured list this season and rethink that — because that tab is almost certainly going to soar beyond $1 billion this season.
11. Friday is Ace Night
As we were saying, it’s time to shorten the schedule. So think about the possibilities if every team played just six games a week, every week.
What if teams took the next logical step, in search of more rest, and also went to a six-man rotation? If Opening Day was on Friday, maybe that turns every Friday into … Ace Night!
So that means Friday night in Baltimore is also Corbin Burnes Night. Friday night in the Bronx is Gerrit Cole Night. Friday night in Philadelphia is Zack Wheeler Night. Think those teams could sell a few tickets for Ace Night? Think there would be a streaming service or TV network that would pay a few extra dollars to televise Ace Night? We do.
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12. Start paying those inning-eaters
So you want starting pitchers to eat up more innings, huh? Here’s a plan guaranteed to work. Pay them!
Pay for what you value. That’s our motto. So no offense to the Blake Snells or Jacob deGroms of the world. But why did Zack Wheeler just sign for $42 million a year? What was it about the body of work of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander that the Mets thought was worth $43.3 million a year, even at their advanced baseball age? Hmmm, what’s the common thread?
Let’s take it as a sign teams are finally getting the memo on the true value of all that volume. No one cares about our advice. But let’s say this one more time: If you want your starters to chew up all those innings, pay them for it. What a concept.
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(Top photo: Hunter Martin / Getty Images)