McAdam: How the Red Sox could hack the new extra-inning rule

Earlier this week, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke indicated he was starting to think about the new rule, instituted for the 2020 season, which will place a baserunner on second base to start every extra inning.

The rule is designed to shorten the length of games that go into extra innings, on the theory that, with all the risks being undertaken by teams, no one wants a 16-inning marathon that lasts 5.5 hours. Such contests would increase the risks of exposure for players and also heighten the chance of injuries due to fatigue.

Roenicke said he had read a study about the best way to approach the new rule. Does it make sense to bunt the runner over and hope that a flyball can score the go-ahead/winning run? How will strategies differ on the road as opposed to being at home?

These are all things managers will have to explore. Roenicke said he would be consulting with Pawtucket manager Billy McMillon and others in the system, since the rule was already in place in the minors.

All of which got me to thinking about ways in which teams could beat the system. And I came up with one that the Sox -- and other teams -- might consider.



One of the aspects of the rule hasn't been discussed much is that the player making the final out in the previous inning will be the baserunner placed at second the following inning. (This is done, obviously, to ensure that the player on base won't have his turn at the plate come up).

So, let's envision the following scenario: the Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles are tied on Opening Night, July 24, 3-3 as the Sox head into the bottom of the ninth.

The first two hitters are retired, bringing up, say, Jackie Bradley Jr. with two outs and the bases empty. Although Bradley has some decent power, he's not the biggest threat to win the game with one swing of the bat. So, the Red Sox could choose to have outfielder Jarren Duran pinch-hit for Bradley.

(For the time being, Duran isn't part of the Red Sox' player pool, but there are still 10 vacancies on the list and nearly two weeks remaining in which to address that. And having played at Double-A in 2019, it's not as if Duran is light years away from the major leagues. In fact, there are some projections that if the Red Sox don't/won't re-sign Bradley this winter, Duran could be in line to be the team's center fielder in 2021.)

Duran is quite possibly the speediest player in the organization, or at least in the upper levels of the organization. He's stolen 70 bases in two years in pro ball, including 46 in 59 tries last year, split between High-A Salem and Portland. And anyway, as you'll see, we're not looking for stolen base ability here  -- just raw speed. Duran has plenty of the latter.

Whether Duran gets on base in his pinch-hit appearance is almost irrelevant. If he does, his stolen base capability could come in handy. If he steals successfully, he's in scoring position, poised to score a winning run on a single. And if he gets thrown out, well, he's made the final out of the inning, and as such, becomes the team's designated runner for the bottom of the 10th. The same scenario holds if he's retired at the plate -- Duran, the fastest option on the roster, starts the bottom of the next inning just 180 feet from the plate.

As an added bonus, Duran was drafted as a second baseman, meaning he could conceivably be used in the same capacity with either Jose Peraza or slow-footed Michael Chavis.

There are other ways to maximize Duran's speed, too. If you wanted to give Bradley (or anyone else) a chance to win the game with one swing, you could allow him to hit and then insert Duran as the pinch-runner with explicit instructions to take off on the first pitch. Again, the same scenario would be in place: a successful steal means the potential winning run would be in scoring position, or better yet, at third, if the batter hit a double.

Finally, you could allow Bradley to hit, and if he makes the final out, replace him defensively in the next half inning, so again, Duran's spot would mean that he would be the designated runner the following inning.

Naturally, there are some potential problems here. For one thing, do the Red Sox really want to use one of their 30-man spots to someone who hasn't yet demonstrated the ability to contribute at the big league level? For another, how many times will this scenario come into play? Is it worth it to assign a roster spot to someone who might only help on the occasions when the team is forced into extra-innings?

Well, consider that the Red Sox played 17 extra-inning games in 2019, or just a hair more than one every 10 games. If that same percentage were to hold this season, that would translate into six extra-inning games for 2020.

If Duran (or someone similar) could be the difference in four or five those games, could that mean the difference between contending and pretending? Perhaps.

In the mid-1970s, the Oakland A's took the innovative approach of carrying Herb Washington on their roster exclusively as a pinch-runner. Washington got into 105 games over the two seasons, but never collected a single at-bat or logged a single inning in the field. His speed, however, allowed him to steal 31 bases, and more importantly, score 33 runs -- all as a pinch-runner.

The 2020 season could be wacky enough to borrow this strategy again.