In years past, baseball has seen the addition of moving the defenders to one side of the field known as “the shift.” The point of the shift is to put the defenders in spots where the hitter puts the ball in play the most, leading to more outs. This strategy has recently been under fire because of the “hits” that the shift takes away.

In response to the backlash, Major League Baseball has implemented a ban on the shift. This season, all infielders must be on the infield dirt and there can be only two infielders on each side of 2nd base. This rule is basically putting all defenders in a “standard starting position”.

Many fans are in favor of this because it is going to lead to more offense. So many times throughout a season players hit a line drive right up the middle that is expected to be a hit almost 10/10 times in the standard positioning. On the other hand, a left-handed hitter could hit a slow ground ball to the shortstop position and it gets through as a hit because no one is there. The new guidelines are making it so “expected hits” are hits and “expected outs” are outs.

Despite this logic, the shift should be kept in baseball. I understand from an offensive perspective many hitters do not like it, but that is the risk you run when the defense knows you don’t want to hit the ball to all fields. At the end of the day, the goal is to get 27 outs and if the shift helps, it should be kept in.

One of the teams that have been known for the shift in years past were the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are a team that incorporates a lot of strategy into the game that isn’t “traditional”. For example, they tend to pull their starters earlier than expected along with “over-emphasizing” their shifts.

Even though their strategies are different compared to the traditional style of baseball, the Rays have had success in recent years. They have finished above .500 in record in the past five years and won the division two of those years, and made it to the World Series in 2020. Regardless of their strategy or gameplan, the Rays have succeeded with it.

On the flip side, the idea of taking away an opponent’s strength is not only seen in baseball but in other sports as well. If you are playing basketball and your opponent has a strong right hand but can not dribble with their left hand, you are going to make him go left. If a team has a very good player, the defense may double-team him to make things harder for him.

If you are playing ping-pong and your opponent has a strong forehand shot but struggles with their backhand shot, you probably would hit the ball to your opponent’s backhand because that is the best way for you to gain a point.

Even more, we saw this type of strategy in football in the NFC Championship game. When the San Francisco 49ers faced injuries against the Philadelphia Eagles, they had no healthy quarterback that could throw the ball. To take advantage of this, the Eagles brought more defenders near the line of scrimmage to stop the run. This strategy was effective because the Eagles went on to win 31-7.

These strategies that were used could be considered common sense to many people. Why is it different in baseball? The defense takes away someone’s strengths and makes them beat them through their weaknesses. That is just a simple sports strategy.

The shift is a controversial topic in baseball. Some hitters have lost many hits because of it and it can be frustrating, but if the point of playing defense is to get the other team out, then taking away the shift will be a downfall for defense.