A big rule change could be coming to MLB, courtesy of Commissioner Rob Manfred. Now he’s floating the possibility of the golden at-bat, and many fans are swinging against it.
The proposed rule, which Manfred said is in the “conversation-only stage,” would let teams disregard the batting order once per game to send their best hitter to the plate.
It would let the sport’s biggest stars to affect the biggest moments.
“There was a little buzz around it at an owners’ meeting — the idea of a golden at-bat,” Manfred said this fall on “The Varsity” podcast with John Ourand.
The news spread to social media this week, where thousands of outraged baseball fans urged MLB executives to stop tinkering with their beloved sport.
“This would be the dumbest rule implementation in the history of professional sports,” one account focused on baseball news wrote on X.
“Manfred must be stopped. He’s intent on destroying baseball,” the “Uniform Critic” X account wrote. “His golden at-bat rule is beyond preposterous. Insane even.”
David Samson, former president of the Miami Marlins, ran into similar concerns when he proposed a similar rule to the league’s competition committee in 2014.
“The view was, you are basically ruining the sanctity of the game,” Samson told The Athletic this week. “The brilliance of the history of the game is that, hey, if the right guy’s up, the right guy’s up — and if not, he’s not.”
Other than Manfred, MLB officials have declined to comment on the potential change, though it could be a hot topic at the league’s winter meetings next week.
• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.
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