Rob Manfred is never short of ideas.
And in the world of baseball watching, there is no end to ridicule.
Chris O'Gorman, who recently appeared in “Questions about cancer'' podcast, the Major League Baseball commissioner spoke about his awareness of the starting pitching problem and two ideas that have emerged to address it.
Kevin Guzman, the All-Star starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, didn't want to hear that opinion.
“Don't believe anything this man says.” Gaussman wrote about X. “If the fans don’t hit on the spot, get ready for six innings where you can defend the DH.”
Gaussmann's post quotation tweet Clip of Manfred's appearance Commissioner responds to deliberations on minimum pitching requirements on podcast “Questions for Cancer.”
Such a rule would establish a threshold that a pitcher must pass before a manager can remove him from a game.
“[That’s] It’s too blunt a tool to solve this problem.” Mr Manfred told Mr O'Gorman: during the podcast.
The problem, Manfred believes, is that starting pitchers tend to pitch fewer innings before managers decide to move them to the bullpen.
According to CBS Sportsthe innings rate per starter dropped from 6.3 in 1984 to 5.9 in 2004 to 5.2 in 2024.
That's a problem. Because, as Manfred said, “The name and face you see most often on broadcasts is the starting pitcher. Historically, the matchup of great starting pitchers has been important in terms of marketing the game… I think we need to get back to it.”
More appealing than minimum requirements, Manfred continued, would be changes to trade rules that would prevent managers from reaching into the bullpen until they feel it's really necessary.
“One of the things that happened today was [is a] If a man throws for three days in a row, he turns completely white. [and then the team] We bring in someone else to give him a break as opposed to him being on the roster forever,” Manfred said.
“I think we need to create incentives for clubs to develop pitchers who can play deeper into the game, through roster rules and transaction rules,” the commissioner continued. [We need to create] This rule creates incentives for clubs to develop specific types of pitchers. ”
This is something of a double-edged sword, as forcing starting pitchers to pitch deeper into the game will likely increase the prevalence of injuries.
“Injury issue, our doctors have studied this carefully.” [and] They continue to believe that the focus on speed and spin rate is the specific cause of increased injuries,” Manfred said.
At the same time, all signs point to clubs continuing to throw relatively unknown relievers into games at the expense of better-known starting pitchers if the league doesn't take action.
The discussion is far from over, as Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2026 season.
