A New Golden Rule? There’s ‘Buzz’ About Golden At-Bat, Manfred Says

Imagine the Mets were trailing by a run with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth and a slumping six-hole hitter in a 2-for-35 stretch was due up. Now imagine Carlos Mendoza replacing the batter with Francisco Lindor. Not as a pinch hitter. But with a new rule called the “golden at-bat.”

“There are a variety of (rule change ideas) that are being talked about,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said a few weeks ago on The Varsity podcast. “One of them—there was a little buzz around it at an owners’ meeting—was the idea of a golden at-bat.”

Basically, the golden at-bat would allow a team to bat whoever they wanted out of order, one time in a game. Maybe only after the seventh inning? Or maybe only if a team is tied or trailing? The specifics would be a work in progress.

“That rule, and things like that, are in the conversation-only stage right now,” Manfred said on the podcast. Don’t expect to see this change anytime soon.

I was skeptical when I first heard about the pitch clock and the rules limiting pick-off attempts at first. I hated it when the National League went to a designated hitter. (There was something so cool about seeing a pitcher get a big hit, even if it only happened once in a blue moon. Plus, a bit of strategy is lost with the DH.)

When I first heard about this potential change, my instinct was no thank you. But I think, like these other moves, it would grow on me and make the game more interesting. I have become a pitch clock fan, I like more stolen base attempts and I don’t miss watching pitchers hit as much as I thought I would.

I don’t even mind the ghost runner. (In the regular season—using it in the playoffs would be an abomination, of course.)

The golden at-bat would also be a boost to another favorite baseball pastime: second-guessing the manager.

Use it early with a lead to try to put a game out of reach? Save for later? What if there ends up never being a better time later? Something tells me the analytics folks will have a lot to say about this, too.

And who do you send up? The best player or the hottest? I might have gone with Mark Vientos in the playoffs. What if one player has great numbers against the opposing team’s pitcher?

Would you really miss the “good old days” when you didn’t get to see the best player step up at a key moment in the game? I don’t imagine that I would.

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