You can’t say MLB and Rob Manfred aren’t trying.
Since taking over for Bud Selig in 2015 as the league’s 10th commissioner, Manfred has been the face of several changes in baseball. Some have been fantastic. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who is against the pitch clock at this point, as the average time of games has dropped drastically over the past two seasons. Also, while some purists may not like the larger bases or a pitcher’s inability to have unlimited pick-off attempts, it has led to a couple stunning and exciting statistical campaigns from Ronald Acuna Jr. and Shohei Ohtani.
So what’s next on Manfred’s seemingly never-ending list of tweaks to America’s pastime? It might be something a little out of left field — pardon the terrible pun.
What is the Golden At-Bat?
Recently speaking on John Ourand’s podcast, The Varsity, Manfred went into some detail about possible rule changes in the works. “There are a variety of (rule change ideas) that are being talked about out there. One of them — there was a little buzz around it at an owners’ meeting — was the idea of a Golden At-Bat.”
While we don’t have a crystal clear picture of how the MLB would implement the Golden At-Bat rule, in theory, it would give a manager the opportunity to essentially pinch-hit a team’s best player at a crucial point in the game — even if said best player is already in the lineup.
For example, if the Yankees had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and Anthony Volpe was coming to the plate, Aaron Boone could call on Aaron Judge to take that plate appearance instead of his shortstop. The obvious strategy coming from a manager’s willingness to use the Golden At-Bat early in a contest, or possibly saving it for a more significant moment in the later innings.
This “rule” is still in the talking stages, but there are some questions to be had:
When might MLB implement the Golden At-Bat rule?
Though we don’t know much about the MLB’s intent and seriousness as it pertains to the Golden At-Bat, one thing is for sure: This is years away from taking place in a regular season game.
As illustrated currently by the automated strike zone, MLB prefers to test these rule changes in the minor leagues before bringing them to the majors and that process can take a long time. In a sport where fans can be quite judgemental and passionate about the way things used to be, I’d expect something this jarring and unique will be heavily debated and scrutinized before seeing the light of day.
Maybe there will come a time when fans at a bar get to yell at the television about their manager’s shocking decision to burn the Golden At-Bat in the third inning of a tie ballgame, but we’re still a ways away.
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