Scott Boras calls for rule change to address ‘discriminatory’ shifts

Scott Boras is the most well-known agent in Major League Baseball, and when his clients do well, he does too. So it comes as no surprise that he’s against anything that might hurt their numbers.

Boras believes that there needs to be a rule limiting the amount and severity of shifting in baseball, a practice he called “discriminatory” due to its more significant impacts on left-handed hitters.

“You want right handed hitters and left handed hitters treated equally,” Boras told Jon Heyman of Fancred Sports. “I think you have to (legislate) having two players on the other side of the (second base) bag.”

Boras argued that shifting also makes the game less safe for shortstops and third basemen unused to playing on the right side of the infield.

“It’s putting players at risk,” Boras said.

Boras also dismissed arguments that left-handed hitters should simply learn to hit to the opposite field, arguing that this isn’t coached at the developmental level and it’s an unfair advantage for right-handers who don’t have to adapt.

“You’re trained in the minor leagues to do one consistent approach,” Boras said. “It’s a major adjustment. … There’s a psychological component to this. A lot of this has to do with psychology. When a hitter comes up to the plate and sees four guys on the right side of the infield, I think it’s a bit intimidating.”

One Boras client has talked about bunting against the shift, but everything has gone so wrong for him in 2018 that it hasn’t mattered. It’s hard to separate Boras’s points from what is likely his real financial motivation. The shift has been very effective, particularly against one-dimensional lefty hitters who do nothing but pull the ball, and it’s costing some of his clients a lot of money. At the end of the day, many teams have adopted a very successful strategy, and the targets of that strategy aren’t adapting.