Major League Baseball has made a series of rule changes for the upcoming season in order to speed up the pace of play and potentially increase offensive output for the league. Those changes include a pitch clock, a limit on pickoff attempts, slightly bigger bases and the banning of the shift as we know it.
For the purposes of this article, I want to dive into the shift ban and how it could affect hitters heading into your fantasy draft.
First of all: What is a shift? A shift is a defensive formation that involves position players moving away from their standard spots on the field – and usually this means three or more infielders playing on the same side of second base. Shifts most commonly take place vs left-handed batters, with the shortstop moving to the right side of the field, but it can also occur vs. right-handed pull hitters. The point of the shift is to load up one side of the infield against a pull hitter to take away more ground balls that might slip through.
