Last year, the pandemic canceled the minor league season. Now, those lower leagues are testing grounds for new rules. And two key events, the Futures Game and the draft, have kicked off All-Star weekend.
DENVER — When the call came for Spencer Torkelson, he was at home in California, locked down like everyone else. His college baseball season at Arizona State had ended abruptly because of the coronavirus pandemic, so he was free of distractions when the Detroit Tigers selected him first overall in the draft in June 2020.
Most of his predecessors had been busier, some getting their life-changing news while trying to concentrate on the College World Series.
“I’m sure it was tough. If the draft’s going on while you’re playing, you can’t take an agent’s phone call or a team’s phone call,” Torkelson, a slugging third baseman, said on Sunday at Coors Field. “This year I’m sure it’s a little easier with nothing going on.”
Nothing — and everything. On Sunday, for the first time, Major League Baseball held its two most significant prospect events on the same day. After the annual All-Star Futures Game, played between two teams of top minor leaguers, the league held the first round of the amateur draft at a nearby theater, with the Pittsburgh Pirates selecting Henry Davis, a catcher from the University of Louisville, first overall.
The draft had been a June staple since its inception in 1965, with newly selected players shipped off to far-flung minor league teams as soon as they signed. This year, M.L.B. reconfigured the minors, eliminating short-season Class A and rookie-level teams and spinning off some old standbys (like the Class AA Trenton Thunder) to partner leagues unaffiliated with specific clubs.
In exerting full control over player development, M.L.B. also imposed new rules at each level intended to stimulate action, especially stolen bases. Major-league teams were averaging 0.46 steals per game through Saturday, the lowest number in 50 years. Many front offices have come to believe that the risk of making an out is not worth the reward of gaining a base.
In Class AAA, though, games now feature bigger bases, tightening the distance between them. In Class AA, infielders cannot position themselves on the outfield grass, and teams must keep two infielders on either side of second base.
In high-Class A, pitchers must step off the rubber to make a pickoff attempt, removing the deceptive left-handers’ move to first base. In low-Class A, they are limited to two attempts per plate appearance. One low-Class A league features a 15-second pitch clock, and the other an automated strike zone.
The schedule has also been revamped, with most leagues resting on Monday and then playing a six-game series.
“It’s less travel, and you’ve got every Monday off, which is nice,” said Nolan Gorman, a St. Louis Cardinals infield prospect. “But it’s definitely more of a chess game now with the opposing pitchers, because you see a starter two times a week. Whoever starts Tuesday is going to throw Sunday, pretty much. Now you’ve got to figure out how they’re attacking you and play your game to that.”
Gorman started the season in Class AA and has since been promoted, giving him a chance to see two of the new rules up close.
On the change to the Class AAA bases, which are now 18 inches square, up from 15, he said: “Honestly, the bigger bases were a little confusing and a little different to get used to. By now, I’ve got it down a little bit and it’s not too bad. It’s more so running the bases — they’re bigger, so technically you have less area from base to base to run, and when you’re cutting the angles, there’s specific ways to do it.”
And on the absence of the infield shift in Class AA, Gorman said: “I would say it gave some hits to guys who are pulling the ball on the ground. But for the most part, I haven’t seen too much of a difference in Triple-A with guys playing on the grass. It hasn’t been too much of a factor for me, but it’s definitely different playing back there after playing the first couple of months on the dirt only.”
Francisco Alvarez, a Mets catching prospect who has played at two Class A levels this season, said controlling the running game has been harder with the limits on pickoff moves.
“It’s definitely a little bit more difficult because of the new rule that we’re playing with, where the pitcher has to step off before throwing,” Alvarez, who homered in the National League’s 8-3 win on Sunday, said through an interpreter. “A lot of these guys are getting balks called on them. But it’s one of these things that we have to get adjusted to because it’s a new rule, and hopefully going forward we’ll be better.”
Alvarez, who has thrown out only eight of 44 potential base stealers this season, added: “It’s not really an excuse for me; it’s not a reason why I’m not throwing out more runners. I should be doing that.”
Another Mets prospect, third baseman Brett Baty, said he was working on his lateral quickness in the field and his pitch recognition at the plate. Like all minor leaguers, he missed a year of development when the 2020 schedule was canceled because of the pandemic.
“It was super tough last year, but luckily I got to go to the alt site, so I got some games in,” Baty said, referring to the Mets’ summer training site in Brooklyn. He also went to the instructional league last fall for more simulated game action. “It definitely was tough to not have a full season, but I just tried to study my craft and tried to do baseball every day.”
Baty has hit well enough for the high-Class A Brooklyn Cyclones this season — .309 with seven home runs in 51 games — that the Mets have told him to report to a higher level, Class AA Binghamton, after the Futures Game. Like his teammates here on Sunday, he has handled a year of adjustments well enough to be invited to the opening act of this two-part prospect showcase.
“At first it was a little weird,” said Julio Rodriguez, a top outfield prospect for the Seattle Mariners. “But now, we’re back on track.”
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