MLB teams, armed with a wealth of data in the 2010s, noticed that many hitters were pulling the ball to the same spots on the field. Radical defensive shifts became ubiquitous around the game, and they worked. Batting average on balls in play, which typically hover around .300, plummeted to .290 in 2022, while overall league batting average fell to .243.
In response to falling offense, baseball instituted new rules in 2023 that limited where defenders could stand. Rather than allow infielders to stand in shallow
outfield, as many teams were doing, the new rules required infielders to stay within the infield dirt. Originally, a violation by the defense resulted simply in a ball being called for the batter.
But that did not provide much of a disincentive for defenders to try to stretch the limits of the rule as much as they could. If playing on the edge of the grass resulted in an additional out, that was more than worth the risk of an extra ball called. So in 2025, MLB changed the rules to create a further disincentive. Now, if a defender violates the shift rule and is the first defender to touch the ball, the batter is safe and the defender is charged with an error. This makes some sense as it penalizes the defender who took advantage of the violation to make a play, while not creating a penalty if a defender happens to have a foot in the outfield grass but had no bearing on the play.
Fast-forward to Thursday in Kansas City, when Dominic Canzone hit a grounder to Michael Massey at second base in the eighth inning. Massey easily fielded it and threw to first base to retire Canzone. Or so we thought. Mariners manager Dan Wilson asked for a challenge to review whether or not Massey had his foot in the outfield grass. The replay confirmed that he did.
The Mariners had been watching Massey, and were ready to pounce for the right time to challenge.
“Two pitches before I called [field coordinator Louis Boyd] and said, ‘Hey, if a ball is hit to Massey, give me a call. We’re going to challenge it probably,’” Bissell said. “And sure enough, Canzone hit the ball to him, and there was just enough evidence to show that his heel was in the grass.”
For what it’s worth, Massey owned his mistake.
“I’ve played [in that spot] for four years, never had it happen,” Massey added. “It’s on me, as far as — obviously, I know the rule. Can’t be in the grass. Whether the replay is conclusive or not, we kind of went through all that stuff last year, and I’ve got my opinions on it. It doesn’t help us in this situation. Reality is, that’s the rule, and I’ll be better.”
According to Jordan Stone in the Mariners’ public relations department, it is the first shift violation error in MLB history.
History!
