Mookie Betts Wants to End Games When Position Players Pitch: The Idea Is Not That Crazy
Mookie Betts has a suggestion for Major League Baseball, and it is a good one. Once a team brings in a position player to pitch, just end the game.
Betts told Tom Dierberger of Sports Illustrated exactly that. “Once position players come in, just call the game. That’s pretty much it. Once you’re down 10 and the position player comes in, just call it a day.”
He is right. He is completely right, and MLB should listen.
Position players pitching used to be a novelty. It happened maybe once a year. Then rules changed to allow it more often, and now it feels like it happens twice a week. The strategy is always the same: save the bullpen, wave the white flag, get through the last inning without burning a real arm.
The problem is that it drags out games nobody wants to watch. The starting pitcher lost. The manager gave up. The players know the game is over. But the rules say you have to finish the innings, so a shortstop comes in and throws 55 mile per hour lob pitches while the hitting team either takes ridiculous hacks or gets embarrassed if they do not.
“It’s a lose-lose,” Betts told SI. “You get a hit, you’re supposed to. But it’s so hard to get a hit. It’s so hard to get that hit. And then if you get out, ah, you got out by a position player. I’d rather just go home at that point.”
He is not wrong. Facing a position player is one of the most awkward at bats in baseball. The velocity is too slow to time. The strike zone is a joke. Every swing looks bad on camera.
MLB rules already restrict this. Teams can only use a position player on the mound if they are up by 10 runs or down by 8. So the trigger is already set at a clear “this game is decided” threshold. If the game is that lopsided, why keep playing?
The pushback will come from purists. Baseball does not do mercy rules at the pro level. Some people will argue that you have to earn every out, that hitters need to keep working, that pitchers need innings. That is fine. But those are the same people who complain that games are too long.
You cannot have it both ways. If MLB wants shorter games, this is one of the easiest changes to make. It costs nothing. It only affects blowouts. And it protects players from the actual injuries that happen when position players try to throw actual pitches to protect themselves.
There is a real safety angle here too. Enrique Hernandez threw a real pitch last year and hurt his elbow. Anthony Rizzo strained something a few years back trying to get through a mop up appearance. The novelty is not worth the risk.
Betts is not proposing something wild. He is proposing something practical. And he is the kind of star player whose voice actually carries weight in league meetings.
The odds of this passing next winter are low. Owners rarely move fast on rule changes, and this one would need players on both sides to agree. But do not be surprised if it starts showing up in future collective bargaining discussions.
Mookie Betts wants to go home when the game is over. That should not be controversial.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
