Freddie Freeman, Yelich React to Manfred's Golden At-Bat Rule Change Idea for MLB

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has overseen plenty of new rules that have reshaped how baseball is played and its in-game strategy.

Another radical change might be coming down the pike.

The Athletic's Jayson Stark canvassed opinions from around the league about the "Golden At-Bat" rule, which would allow a manager to send a specific hitter to the plate for one at-bat a game.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman pushed back on the concept in games of consequence.

"I'm old school, you know, even as a young guy," he said.

"I like baseball.

I'm a baseball purist.

So I'm gonna go no." The Milwaukee Brewers' Christian Yelich and Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa, on the other hand, were a little more receptive.

Yelich told Stark he would "have to see it more" but didn't give a flat no.

"I mean, look, we're doing stuff to change the game up a little bit and make it exciting," he said.

"So I'm open to any idea, and you kind of just see how it works out.

And if it's good, it stays.

If it's not, you kind of just keep going." Correa tried to remain diplomatic.

"My relievers are going to hate me if I say I agree with that one," he said.

"I can't agree with that one because the relievers are going to be under really, really high stress all the time, and then the injuries are going to go even higher." The star shortstop did come around, however, after positing that an opposing manager should be able to counter by having the ability to insert whatever pitcher he wants into the game.

With a lot of the new rules put into place, there was an underlying logic behind them, or they at the very least didn't fundamentally alter how the game is played.

Stolen bases have trended downward for years, so widening the bases and limited the number of pickoffs encouraged players to be more aggressive on the basepaths.

The pitch clock has unquestionably shortened games, particularly at the high end .

Banning the shift was never going to be a panacea for the lack of batted balls in play, but having middle infielders line up in their actual positions isn't a dramatic transformation.

Stark spoke with an MLB front-office official who cited the evolving preferences for fans who have shorter and shorter attention spans.

"Look at the way entertainment is consumed now.

Look who you're competing with," they said.

"Today's fans have grown up on their phones.

...

They're used to getting exactly what they want, what they like, what they find engaging and compellingand they want it now.

And they want to watch it for a few minutes and move on.

So the Golden At-Bat accomplishes all those things." Imagine if you could generate more moments like Mike Trout vs.

Shohei Ohtani to decide the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

But the attendance and viewership numbers are already headed in a positive direction.

There's plenty of hand-wringing about how America's Pastime has lost ground to the NFL and perhaps even the NBA in terms of its foothold in the national consciousness.

Fans seem to be responding positively to what the product is now, though.

At a certain point, adding too many gimmicks to a sport risks alienating diehard followers and you wind up in a cycle where you have to create more ways to court casual observers.

The Golden At-Bat might fall into that category..

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