Major League Baseball outlined its plan to stop the widespread use of grip enhancers by pitchers and will suspend any player caught with foreign substances, the league announced Tuesday.
Enforcement of the new foreign substance rule will begin on June 21. Under the plan, any pitcher who “possesses or applies” sticky substances will be ejected from the game and automatically suspended in accordance with past discipline. Repeat offenders will be subject to “progressive discipline,” and clubs can also be disciplined for failing to follow the rules.
The plan also allows major and minor league umpires to regularly check all pitchers regardless of whether opposing managers make a request.
Pitchers can continue to use rosin bags on the mound, but MLB said players “cannot apply foreign substances of any kind to the ball.”
“Based on the information collected over the first two months of the season … there is a prevalence of foreign substance use by pitchers in Major League Baseball and throughout the minor leagues,” MLB said in the statement. “Many baseballs collected have had dark, amber-colored markings that are sticky to the touch.”
It is believed pitchers started applying sticky substances to the ball in an effort to increase their spin rate, which has coincided with a year that’s seen a decrease in MLB-level offense and an increasing strikeout rate — leading the league to crack down on the issue.
MLB said in the memo that “pitchers who use these substances (have) an unfair competitive advantage over hitters and pitchers who do not use foreign substances, and results in less action on the field. In addition, the foreign substance use appears to contribute to a style of pitching in which pitchers sacrifice location in favor of spin and velocity, particularly with respect to elevated fastballs.”
This memo comes amidst a league-wide conversation about the prominent use of foreign substances by pitchers.
The Dodgers’ Trevor Bauer, who has been associated with foreign substances, was asked if he used it on June 6; the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole dodged questions about using Spider Tack last week; and in May, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was ejected for arguing with umpire Joe West after West asked St. Louis reliever Giovanny Gallegos to change hats due to there being a foreign substance on the brim.
Shildt called the use of foreign substances “baseball’s dirty little secret” after the game.
In March, MLB said it would use Statcast data to analyze changes in spin rates and increase monitoring of the dugout and clubhouse spaces in an effort to reduce pitchers’ use of foreign substances on baseballs. Despite that, issues surrounding its use cropped up after the start of the 2021 season on April 1.
This story will be updated.
