ARight now, there aren’t many “two-way players” in MLB, such as Shohei Ohtani. About a century ago, Babe Ruth changed baseball forever by becoming the first true “two-way player.” After more than 100 years, Shohei Ohtani emerged and transformed MLB into an even more interesting sport than it already is. For some reason, MLB believes that helping these types of players grow in the game will help the sport grow as more players who can do both things emerge. Last season, Ohtani mesmerized the world by throwing some amazing matches and smashing his way to winning a MVP price despite failing to get the Los Angeles Angels into the postseason. But last season, Ohtani was unable to complete all 9 innings on the plate unless he finished the game on the mount.
That all changes today as MLB just approved the new “Ohtani’s Rule” that allows batting pitchers to continue batting even after leaving the mount. This will specifically help Shohei Ohtani have even more chances to increase his home run average per game. Last season, not having that rule kept him from winning the single-player home run award all season long. He came close enough but was beaten by Salvador Perez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Both of those sluggers hit 48 men to Ohtani’s 46. In order to better understand this rule, we need to offer an in-depth explanation of how it works. . Ohtani will essentially be the only player to benefit from this rule, as far as we know. It’s always possible that a new MLB slugger who throws equally well could appear this season. We’ll just have to wait and see.
How does the “Ohtani rule” work?
The tentative agreement is to expand the rosters from 26 to 28 players until May 1 in order to balance out a 3.5-week training one way or another. This “Shohei Ohtani” rule has a designated hitter that becomes universal in the new deal. It also states that if the starting pitcher is also on the batting lineup, said player will remain the designated hitter even if he is removed from the tee. For example, say Ohtani only pitches 4 innings, this rule would allow him to continue batting for the rest of the game. Moreover, this rule will not remain only for the likes of the new CBA and not only for 2022. Thus, this rule can help more “two-way players” to get the chances they needed to express their talents at their full capacity.
Comments are closed.