The Dodgers’ secret sauce is off the menu for this season.
While the ban on defensive shifts is great news for hitters, especially left-handed hitters, it’s bad news for Los Angeles, which enjoyed an edge over the rest of baseball for the past four seasons with how well it deployed extreme defensive positioning.
No team since 2019 shifted more often and more effectively than the Dodgers. That edge goes away now that all teams must position two infielders on each side of second base and no deeper than the infield cutout, which is 95 feet from home plate.
