SEATTLE – Josh Donaldson is glad he spoke up.
The Twins third baseman, whose outspoken opinions about pitchers using illegal substances to increase the amount of movement they get on their pitches helped prod Major League Baseball into taking action to better enforce rules against them, said the announcement of stiffer penalties and more frequent inspections is a big step for making the game more fair.
“I definitely think they’re taking it seriously. Now it’s just about following through and enforcing it,” Donaldson said after the Twins held a team meeting to go over baseball’s new guidelines. “Hopefully the game will start to police itself and the umpires will do their due diligence and this just becomes part of the process so we can all just play baseball in accordance with the rules.”
Beginning next Monday, umpires will frequently and, Donaldson hopes, routinely inspect pitchers to make sure they’re not applying anything but rosin from the rosin bag to the baseball. Pitchers caught using anything else, from pine tar to sunscreen to chemical adhesives such as “Spider Tack,” will be ejected and subject to a 10-day suspension with pay.
“I really think it’s only going to take a couple of guys getting caught before people say, whoa, let’s pull back on this. You’re not going to want to be branded a cheater,” Donaldson said. “And not being able to replace that guy on the roster, that’s going to be tough. Now you’re putting your teammates in a bind. Now it’s your fault, and that’s a problem.”
The action is in response to a rising number of pitchers whose spin rate has spiked over the past few years, which makes their pitches harder to hit, increases that appear to be related to the use of extra-sticky substances to get a better grip. But Donaldson says he is sympathetic to pitchers who say they need something to better grip, and thus better control, baseballs. Currently, umpires rub each baseball with mud before games to take the new-leather sheen off them, but the practice is hardly uniform, Twins reliever Taylor Rogers said.
“They’re different in every stadium,” Rogers said.
Donaldson suggested MLB explore finding a way to make baseballs easier to grip without leaving it up to players to adapt. “Let’s get smart guys in a room — players, coaches, people who have studied the ball — and find a way to have a preapproved, easier-to-grip ball. A substance that everyone is allowed to use, or maybe some way to have an MLB official rub up the balls in a uniform way. Pitchers need a solution that they can be happy with, and we have to find a way to let them do their jobs, legally.”
Rocco Baldelli took part in a managers’ conference call with the commissioner’s office Tuesday morning before laying out the new policies for his team. He totally supports the efforts to clean up the practice.
“It could be difficult for some guys, but this is where we’re going. There’s no looking back at this point,” Baldelli said. “Our organization is going to abide by these rules and these fashions of enforcement. We wanted to make sure everything was very clear to our players.”
Rogers is in favor, too, but he conceded that the temptation to use whatever might help must be intense in Class AAA.
“I dabbled in it one spring training, but I didn’t like it immediately, so I just kind of threw it aside. The only reason I haven’t tried it more is I’m not really looking for more spin. I throw a sinker, so I’m lucky that my repertoire hasn’t lent itself to me trying to find something to improve that,” Rogers said. “I can’t say if I was sitting there five years ago, teetering on the fence of whether you’re a Triple-A pitcher or a big leaguer and you need more spin rate, I can’t say I wouldn’t at least try it.”