Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
It remains to be seen just how the shift will be regulated in 2023. While players have agreed that the league will be able to restrict the infield alignment next season, their agreement didn’t come with any confirmation on how, and so the details are still an open question. Will the new rule mandate two fielders on each side of second base? Just a general requirement of four players on the infield dirt? MLB says all of that is still undecided.
But while the shift is still around in the meantime? Teams aren’t shifting any less. In fact—in what should be the last season for the shift as we know it—teams are shifting more. Through Monday, MLB had seen infield shifts on 37% of pitches, a new record and a notable bump over last year.
