I Hate the Spring Training Pitcher Re-Entry Rule

[Matthew Trueblood]

On Saturday, the Twins eked out a 6-5 win over the Rays in Grapefruit League play. Along the way, though, the rules of spring training denied them a much more meaningful victory.

Image courtesy of © Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Twins ambushed Ryan Pepiot Saturday. They put together great at-bats against him and built themselves a crooked inning. Edouard Julien walked, and after a Carlos Correa strikeout, Byron Buxton singled and Royce Lewis doubled, each on line drives that were virtually certain hits right off the bat. Max Kepler popped out, but Carlos Correa followed with a single that scored Lewis, making it 3-2 Twins.

Right then, the Bally Sports North cameras caught one of my favorite things about baseball--one of the wonderful and valuable aspects of this sport. After Lewis scored, and as he circled back toward the dugout, he and on-deck batter Ryan Jeffers had a long, engaged conversation. It's not a mystery what they were talking about. Lewis had just scorched a two-strike pitch into the corner for that double. He had something good on Pepiot, and he was passing it along to Jeffers, who was asking questions and trying to translate the wisdom Lewis had gleaned from Lewis's mental framework for hitting cues into his own.

Baseball is often a somewhat isolated, individualistic game, at least on the surface. Players take their turns and try to get their hits, or at least avoid making outs, and then it's up to the next guy to do the same. Yes, scoring is often a team effort, but it's made up of lonely plays that don't have an obvious linkage to one another.

Beneath the surface, you can see that that isn't true. These are the kinds of insights we rarely get from players in public statements, because they don't want to give up whatever edge they've gained, but great offenses separate themselves from good ones because teammates communicate. In the dugout, in the on-deck circle, or even in the handoff of spent lumber from the next batter up to one just coming in to score or freshly retired, hitters talk. They spot something in a pitcher's release or their setup, or they just notice a real example of a pattern the coaches told them to seek out before the game.

The challenge, then, is to share that information from hitter to hitter in a way they each understand. Putting what we see into concise, clear words is hard, and rapidly absorbing what someone shares with us in a way that lets us prepare our own eyes and minds for the thing they're telling us about can be equally so. This is why relationships and clubhouse conversations and team chemistry matter. It's the quintessentially human thing that makes baseball games more than the computer simulations the more cynical pundits out there would have you conceive them to be, even in 2024, as the computers march forward in all aspects of our lives.

Alas, Jeffers never got to test his new knowledge. He didn't get to try to put anything Lewis saw into action, to see whether he was properly understanding his teammate and could see and utilize what his teammate had seen and utilized. The Rays pulled Pepiot at that point, six batters into his penultimate preparatory start for the season. Pepiot is an important part of the Tampa rotation for the coming campaign. They can't afford for him to only get two outs and face six batters in a ramp-up appearance, but they did take him out at that moment.

That was, of course, only because they could bring him back the next inning. They did just that, and Pepiot ended up getting nine more uneventful outs in the game. Jeffers did finally see him, in the fourth inning, and hit a hard fly ball, but it was too high and it died well short of the fence. The Grapefruit and Cactus League rules now allow teams to lift their pitchers and re-insert them the following inning, to keep them out of overlong innings and massive pitch counts, and the Rays did just that.

I get it. The first objective for spring training is to minimize injury risk, and throwing 35 or 40 pitches in a single frame does introduce some of that. The secondary objective, from teams' perspective, is getting their starting pitchers ready for the season. Ask position players or relievers, and they'll tell you spring training is too long. It only stretches as far as it does because starters need the time to build up, so the rules cater to starters and the managers who are overseeing their prep work.

The offense should get a turn to properly practice, too, though. They deserve a chance to test their information and their application of good tips. They deserve to get looks at opponents they'll see during the regular season in realistic scenarios and situations, and they deserve a chance to inflict inconvenience on an opposing pitcher trying to get ready. The Rays could have taken Pepiot out after six batters even in the absence of this re-entry rule, but they'd have had to move the rest of his work for the day down to the bullpen, where he'd only be able to do a thin, watery imitation of the intense work of ramping up with game-level intensity.

This same type of thing could play out with a Twins starter tomorrow, and I'd feel the same way. Spring training wins and losses don't matter, but that doesn't mean that game flow and the concatenation of events within and across innings don't matter. We should treat the game with more respect, not for its own old-timey sake, but because things like this--things we think of only as an easy courtesy, without serious implications--matter more than we realize. Lewis and Jeffers will find some other opportunity for communication reps before Opening Day, but that was a good chance for the team to learn something about itself, and it was denied by a rule that favors pitchers too much. Indeed, much of the modern game favors them too much, anyway.

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[Karbo]

I can agree to a point. ST after all is more of an exhibition type season. However, I do agree with the re-entry rule early in the spring. So maybe just make the last 7-10 days of not allowing it?

[Nick Nelson]

Rocco was asked about this topic after Bailey Ober's start last Thursday (he was pulled with two outs in the second, then re-entered to pitch the third). Here was his response, FWIW:

"It's not just a helpful rule, I think it's a good rule. I think it's good for the game and all of the players that are trying to get ready for a season. We could wedge him in there and keep him going or stick him down in the bullpen to throw by himself to get his work in, which is what you used to have to do, but I think it's a good way of the league adapting and giving the players really an opportunity to get ready. So it's good, I think we'll always take advantage of it as long as it's part of the rules. I think Major League Baseball likes this rule and so do we."

[PatPfund]

Well expressed argument, I don't agree, but I get the sentiment!

I guess my answer would be that the players did get a chance to communicate, and just like in a regular game, the communication may be lost if the manager does go to the 'pen. Especially in the heat/humidity of Florida, I'm fine with training rules that maximize player prep and health for the real games.

[roger]

Your use of the "H" word is awfully strong.  Add me to the list of those who view spring training as exhibitions that focus on getting each player ready for the season.  Agree with the rule, 100%.

[Parfigliano]

 Say the opponent brings in their MLB closer and you want a certain young guy to get an AB against him can you reinsert a previousy removed hitter?

[Mike Sixel]

I can't imagine caring about this. It's practice. 

[Doctor Gast]

These are preseason games that don't count & I agree with the rule of saving pitchers from pitching too long into an inning. But when regular season starts players will have plenty of opportunities to share their insights.

[Matthew Trueblood]

10 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

 Say the opponent brings in their MLB closer and you want a certain young guy to get an AB against him can you reinsert a previousy removed hitter?

Hahaha. Of course not! Only the pitchers get this kind of deference. Thence comes my beef with it.

[Matthew Trueblood]

29 minutes ago, Nick Nelson said:

Rocco was asked about this topic after Bailey Ober's start last Thursday (he was pulled with two outs in the second, then re-entered to pitch the third). Here was his response, FWIW:

"It's not just a helpful rule, I think it's a good rule. I think it's good for the game and all of the players that are trying to get ready for a season. We could wedge him in there and keep him going or stick him down in the bullpen to throw by himself to get his work in, which is what you used to have to do, but I think it's a good way of the league adapting and giving the players really an opportunity to get ready. So it's good, I think we'll always take advantage of it as long as it's part of the rules. I think Major League Baseball likes this rule and so do we."

I've never liked that Rocco Baldelli. What does he know, anyway? 😆

[Parfigliano]

14 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Hahaha. Of course not! Only the pitchers get this kind of deference. Thence comes my beef with it.

Agreed.  

[gman]

I guess i'll need to start reviewing spring training rules to see what else is different from the regular season.

[bean5302]

Having a pitcher address a hitch in their mechanics or make an adjustment to tipping pitches or something in game is huge. Making those mindful adjustments carries over with muscle memory, and being able to make them during a game has got to be incredibly valuable.

When it comes to the length of Spring Training, it's good. It should definitely not be shorter. We've seen what happens when Spring Training gets condensed, and it's a huge pile of injuries. Guys are starting their real on the field workouts for the first time in months, and veterans are especially susceptible to an odd pain or tweak here or there shutting them down for a week or two. Relief pitchers are probably the least in need of a long spring, but plenty of hitters develop a bad habit they need to work out or have some timing issues they need to work through.

[The Mad King]

I really liked your writing style. Great article.

[Trov]

I get your point, but I do not agree.  Spring training games already mean nothing, they end in ties and the whole point is to get ready for season.  You want to get your pitcher up throw 15 to 25 pitches in an inning, sit down, and get back up again, to work on the arm stamina.  The amount of pitches in an inning has been shown to be a bigger deal than the total number overall.  If you leave a guy out there for 30 to 40 pitches it could damage their arm on a worthless game.  

Yes, hitters need to get ready too, but wouldn't having to practice facing a guy they have not prepped for help that as well?  Now Jeffers gets one at bat facing a guy they know little about for first time.  The fact is, pitchers you face in spring are not the same type you face in regular season.  They generally are working on other pitches they will rarely throw in regular season. 

[Jocko87]

I dislike the rule that allowed Correa to bat twice in five hitters. We had to do that cause we didn't have enough kids when I was growing up.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

So do you also disagree with rehab players leading off every inning in A-ball to get at-bats in?

That means we panic because the Twins are 7-14 this Spring?

[laloesch]

It's nice to see Correa hitting well in spring training.  Hope this translates over into the regular season.

[jimmyc]

OMG!  It's spring TRAINING for professional baseball players.  Thankfully you have no say in the setting of the rules.

[chaderic20]

4 hours ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

Hahaha. Of course not! Only the pitchers get this kind of deference. Thence comes my beef with it.

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt that you're just being facetious here, and that you DO actually understand the difference between pulling a pitcher from a long inning in a meaningless practice game to prevent injury and allowing him to re-enter the next inning clean, vs reinserting a hitter who was pulled just because you now want the matchup.

And honestly, if they made a rule that allowed reinserting hitters during spring training, I'd be ok with it. Say you want to get your young lefty second baseman some additional at bats against left handed pitching, go ahead and put him back in. It's spring training, that's what all of this is for!

[old nurse]

It is down to criticizing practice. I suppose it is a change from payroll complaining, but not any better

[jkcarew]

Can’t work up any angst on this. If anything, I even like it from the hitter’s perspective…as, in the end, more batters get to see the front-line arm instead of what would potentially (usually) be more pitches thrown by a nameless/faceless minor league guy.

[DocBauer]

Appreciate the sentiment of changing the "integrity" if the game. But we're really just talking about practice getting ready for the season. 

In other sports, you can pull a player at any time and re-insert them at any time to get additional work or playing time. But not in baseball. But while we're actually playing games, we're also talking practice games that end in ties, that are inclusive of non roster players in the lineup or finishing the game. We get A and AA players from the 5th inning on a times who aren't even on the 40 man roster. Should they not be allowed to play? 

There is a difference between a player "losing" an opportunity in a practice game against a struggling pitcher vs a pitcher trying to get ready and you're worried about the number of pitches he's throwing in an individual inning. I have no problem with this as it not only works both ways, but it's also about getting arms ready, as well as protecting those arms from getting strained this early in what is, again, a practice environment. 

Are pitchers treated differently in ST? Absolutely. But what's wrong with that? Really. They are a very different and unique position different than any other position in any sport. Offering them this little "extra" convenience is a lot better than risking injury. As a fan of baseball, I'm OK doing this little "extra" something to keep them on schedule and avoiding injury because I'd rather have MY staff healthy and ready, and I'd also like to play games against the best if possible.