It’s as if your favorite team is leading before the first pitch is even thrown. Impossible, you say? Well, advance notice of Major League Baseball’s crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances already is producing results.
Now comes the difficult part – the actual enforcement.
Seth Levinson, whose clients at the ACES agency include pitchers Jon Lester and Rich Hill and outfielders Charlie Blackmon and David Peralta, calls the league’s plans “outrageously unjust.” Umpires are not qualified to distinguish between sticky substances, Levinson said, and players who appeal discipline will not receive a fair hearing because the arbitrator will be a league executive.
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Dodgers right-hander Trevor Bauer, in a recent YouTube video entitled “MLB Botched it Again,” raised similar concerns about the difficulty of the umpires’ mission. The league, however, intends to push forward, and differences already are apparent in a sport that is starved for more offense and action.
The sample sizes are small. The cause-and-effect might not be direct. But spin rates league-wide are down and offense is up since June 3, when the league signaled its intentions to discipline pitchers who are caught using substances that not only enhance grip, but also performance.
Starting Monday, crew chiefs assisted primarily by the second-in-command on umpiring staffs will inspect starting pitchers at least twice per game, closers when they enter a game and other relievers either at the conclusion of an inning in which they enter a game or upon their removal, whichever comes first. A player who possesses or applies foreign substances will be subject to immediate ejection and then suspension.
Bauer, who has been outspoken on the topic since 2018 but was among those who appeared to be flouting the rules earlier this season, is among those concerned the process will be too subjective.
“One umpire might think one thing and the next umpire might think something completely different,” Bauer said in his video. “You have to have a standard on what is sticky. You have to have clarity on what is sticky. It can be anything. You have a piece of paper and if you press your hand on the piece of paper and it sticks to your hand, it’s sticky, and if not, it’s not. OK. At least we have something we can define: ‘This is sticky and that is not sticky.’ I’m not saying that’s the best (example). But you have to have some sort of definition by which the umpires are looking for this stuff.”
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Levinson, who does not represent Bauer, also views the plan as flawed.
“The ejection, suspension, and ultimately determination of innocence or guilt are entirely reliant upon the unqualified opinion of the umpire,” Levinson said. “Without any training whatsoever, the umpire must make the critical determination whether the substance is a foreign substance in violation of the rules.
“What if the substance was the combination of sweat and rosin, as Trevor Bauer demonstrated, that can create enough stick to hold a baseball to his palm?” Levinson continued, referring to a recent session Bauer held with reporters at Dodger Stadium. “What if the substance was a medication or body ointment unrelated to improve the control of pitches?”
“It is entirely foreseeable for an umpire to make an honest mistake. The collection, preservation, and testing of the evidence would be the only way to determine whether the substance was indeed a violation of the rules. Guess what? There is nothing in the rules about the procedure to collect a sample of the evidence, nor is even testing the substance mentioned. In other words, there are no safeguards against an honest mistake by an unqualified umpire.”
Levinson sees another potential issue as well – an appeal process in which the final arbiter is John McHale, a special assistant to commissioner Rob Manfred. McHale rules on on-field disciplinary matters, which can lead to paid suspensions. Off-field matters, such as violations of baseball’s Joint Drug Policy, are handled by a three-person arbitration panel that includes a league representative, a union representative and a neutral arbitrator, and the suspensions are unpaid.
“You may hear from many people that the player will have his ‘day in court,’” Levinson said. “Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more laughable than that statement. The hearing isn’t before a neutral, unbiased, and fair arbitrator but rather an MLB employee who is beholden to the whims of the league.
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“Therefore, players will be convicted without any evidence other than the unqualified opinion of the umpire. Welcome to MLB’s rule of law and style of justice. The MLB hearings held before an MLB employee is such a sham and an embarrassment that it would make a mockery of a kangaroo court.”
Responded Glen Caplin, a special assistant in baseball operations for the league: “Under the Basic Agreement, the existing on-field appeals process that was bargained by Marvin Miller in 1968 provides significant advantages for players such as receiving full pay while suspended.
“Our fans and people across the game agree this issue must be addressed. We understand that foreign substances have contributed to a style of pitching that is more difficult without those substances (i.e., prioritizing spin/velocity over command), but that style of pitching has been harmful to the game and is dangerous for hitters. We have full confidence in the umpires who have always been and must remain responsible for enforcement.”
The league outlined its plans in a memo to club officials, major-and minor-league players last Tuesday, saying it was instructing umpires to enforce the rules prohibiting foreign substances because of the failure of its increased monitoring and enforcement this season to deter pitchers from using foreign substances.
Joe West, baseball’s senior umpire, has acknowledged the possibility of mistakes, saying, “Don’t think everything is going to be perfect. It doesn’t happen that way.” When league officials held a 90-minute call with umpires on Saturday, the principal topic was how umps will differentiate between legal and illegal substances, according to sources with knowledge of the discussion. One umpire, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “I think it will be very difficult for us to tell the difference.”
“Our umpire leadership has been in regular contact with MLB and the MLBPA as we finalize our enforcement plan,” said Bill Miller, who has been an umpire since 1997 and is president of the umpires’ union. “We are trained to apply the rules on the field in a consistent and fair manner, and the issue of foreign substances will be no different. This is a critical issue for the game and we look forward to partnering with the league and the players to make the game better.”
The league’s memo, using bold face for emphasis, cites the rule stating that “players cannot apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball.” Pitchers are permitted to use the rosin bag on their hands to improve their grip, but the memo says, “players may not intentionally combine rosin with other substances (e.g. sunscreen) to create additional tackiness.” Some players say a mixture of rosin and sunscreen should remain legal, but the league’s research indicated that combination can be performance enhancing.
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One source said the league told umpires to err on the side of caution rather than ejection with players. The creation of a circus-type atmosphere and/or targeting of individual pitchers almost certainly would draw the ire of the players’ union, which cannot prevent the league from enforcing one of its rules, but maintains the right to file grievances on behalf of players.
The union is in a tricky, conflicted position; its membership includes pitchers who have used sticky substances to improve their performances, and hitters who are upset by the competitive advantage those pitchers gained. The extent of the union’s input on the league’s decision to step up enforcement is unclear, as is the receptiveness of the league to any input the union offered. Neither party would comment on the subject.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole made an open plea to the league last week, saying, “please just talk to us,” about enforcement of foreign substances. But the league said in its memo that it had “numerous conversations with accomplished current and former pitchers,” and commissioner Rob Manfred generally prefers buy-in from players regarding on-field matters.
The players almost certainly prefer umpires rather than league officials to conduct the inspections; the umpires, like players, are part of a union that collectively bargains with the league. As with any appeal of an on-field matter, an umpire must present evidence to support his ruling. The league also can examine video of a pitcher’s actions from various angles. And while a learning curve for umpires is expected, the league ultimately is trusting their judgment, as it does in other on-field matters.
Short-term, some type of friction might be inevitable. Long-term, any tension likely will subside if the game lands in a better place. The league already is encouraged by trends that might stem in part from some pitchers transitioning away from foreign substances.
Strikeout rates and spin rates generally decrease over the course of a season, and offense peaks in August. But last week produced the lowest strikeout rate (22.5 percent) of any week this season, run production in June has jumped and Rob Arthur wrote in Baseball Prospectus that a reduction in pitchers’ use of foreign substances might also boost home runs.
The best indication that the league might be succeeding in its quest to create a more balanced pitcher-batter dynamic is the decreasing ratio of fastball spin rate to fastball velocity, according to Statcast. The spin-to-velocity relationship is considered useful in analyzing year-to-year trends because it normalizes for increases in velocity over time. The ratio has dropped in each of the last two weeks, and the figure from last week over a full season would be the lowest since 2015.
Beyond the obvious implications, the crackdown also might create potential service time and roster complications for players and clubs. A suspended player will receive not just salary but also service time, so the temptation might exist for a player who is nearing arbitration or free agency to avoid a demotion by dipping his hand in pine tar and triggering a suspension. That player, though, would be branded as a cheater, potentially putting his career in jeopardy.
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A more plausible scenario would occur if a team loses a pitcher to suspension and by rule needs to play one player short. The team might determine it wants to replace the pitcher and option a position player, costing that player at least 10 days of salary and service time. The position player, then, would be paying a price for his teammate’s transgression.
The long-term goals remain the same for a league trying to address the problem of pitchers using foreign substances. The first is a universal substance pitchers can use legally to improve their grips without enhancing performance. The second is a tackier ball that would eliminate the need for the substances altogether. Padres right-hander Yu Darvish, who previously pitched in Japan’s highest league, Nippon Professional Baseball, tweeted on Friday, “I had some official NPB game balls sent from Japan. I shared them with the Padres, and it seems everyone liked them.”
If only MLB could resolve the issue so easily. Starting Monday, a new, uncomfortable world awaits.
-The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler contributed to this story
(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
