The addition of instant replay to MLB is generally a positive for the league, but it has some downsides. What happened to Brandon Nimmo on Thursday night is a classic example of this issue.
Nimmo was batting for the New York Mets in the bottom of the fifth inning against the San Francisco Giants. He lined a ball into the left-center gap and hustled into second for a double. Nimmo beat the throw with a head-first dive and was all over the base. However, the Giants challenged the call that he was safe at second. They won the challenge and Nimmo was called out … all because he may have momentarily lifted a hand off the bag while hovering all over it.
Btm 5th – @SFGiants challenge call that Brandon Nimmo is safe at 2B; call overturned, runner is out. Powered by @Mitel. pic.twitter.com/HqYqp4zdg6
— MLB Replays (@MLBReplays) August 27, 2021
That was ridiculous. You watch that with the naked eye and there isn’t even anything to challenge; Nimmo got in there safely and without a question.
MLB replay was not added so a little ticky tack miniscule thing like this could be sorted. It was added so umpires could see clear and obvious big things, like whether a ball is fair or foul, or whether it clears the wall for a home run, or whether an umpire badly missed a call at a base. It’s not there to rob Nimmo of a double because he may have barely come off the bag for one-tenth of a second.
I have been saying for years that MLB needs to change that so that does not constitute an out on review. One Twitter user has a solution for this issue:
Once initial contact with the base is made on a slide, the runner is granted the vertical space over the base during the slide. Fixed! Over slides would be an out, but coming off the bag for 1/1000 of a second because of the force of impact wouldn’t be an out.
— K. R. Nelson (@knelson1020) August 27, 2021
MLB should make this change immediately.
