JUPITER, Fla. — In any other season, it would have been the right play. That’s good too.
Joey Wendle held down the Nationals’ Ildemaro Vargas at second base Thursday, preventing a pickoff attempt from bouncing into the outfield and stopping Vargas from advancing on base in the second inning.
Instead, Wendle was cited for obstruction, which was no surprise to him.
He has observed several calls since MLB asked umpires to increase their oversight of obstruction this season, including one in which his right knee crossed the basepaths, as The Athletic reported in February. It is said that it was blocked.
The umpires awarded Vargas third base, and Washington’s shortstop eventually scored on an infield hit.
It’s not a new rule. This is different from deleting pitch clocks or shifts. According to a reporter for The Athletic, Rule 6.01(h) has always defined obstruction as “an act by a fielder who impedes the progress of a runner, even though he is neither in possession of the ball nor acting to defend the ball.” was.
But it’s still something the Mets “have to be more aware of,” Wendle said.
“I don’t like the rules, but I wasn’t mad at the umpires or anything for that call,” Wendle told the Post Friday before the Mets beat the Marlins 3-1. “I feel like he was just doing what they told him to do.”
Wendle said the Mets’ middle infielders are trying to account for obstruction oversight by increasing their tag team.
Sometimes they draw lines in the dirt to reflect driving lanes and try to avoid them.
In the past, he added, infielders could deliberately step in and block the baserunner directly when applying the pickoff tag.
A similar scenario could also play out by chance, where the ball, the angle and momentum of the throw could carry an infielder like Wendle anywhere, and the ball could end up staying in front of him. .
So it’s a challenge. It’s an adjustment.
“It’s like, ‘I might as well not even try,'” Wendle said jokingly, but even in cases like Thursday, when he insisted he didn’t intend to block the bag, his intention was to prevent Vargas from taking third place. And Wendle makes an error.
Right now, in the context of spring training, it just resembles an innocuous sequence.
The impact was not significant.
However, manager Carlos Mendoza said the adjustments could be applied not only to middle infielders but also to back picks from catcher to first base and third base.
Mendoza added that if there was an obstruction call on the back pick to third, that would also result in a goal.
“We still have to play,” Mendoza said. “Again, it’s new, but we have to accept it, work on it and get better.”
