In effort to crack down on sticky substance use, MLB will monitor pitchers' spin rates, examine baseballs

Baseball is on the verge of policing one of its oldest unwritten rules, fighting technology with technology in an effort to cut down on a perceived rise in pitchers using foreign substances to increase spin rate and dominate hitters. 

Major League Baseball has distributed a memo outlining its intention to crack down on the use of foreign substances on baseballs, a multi-pronged attack that will include repossessing game-used baseballs to test for foreign substances, charting sudden rises in spin rates among pitchers and assigning monitors to patrol dugouts, clubhouses and other areas of potential chicanery.. 

The memo, first reported by the New York Post and obtained by USA TODAY Sports, indicates pitchers will be disciplined "regardless of whether evidence of the violation has been discovered during or following a game." 

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In a sense, any punishments meted out under this surveillance will mark the end of an era in which use of sticky substances by pitchers, while banned by rule 6.02, was a generally accepted practice to aid pitchers in their control and, ostensibly make batters safer when they step in. Generally, so long as a pitcher was not blatant in their usage of pine tar or Bullfrog or any custom-made goops, all was fair. 

Yet the advent of technology and the sudden improvement in spin rate of several pitchers sparked an internal debate regarding the use of substances, with 2020 NL Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer at the center. 

Bauer implied in myriad social media posts that the improvements of pitchers Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole upon their arrival with the Houston Astros was tied to questionable practices. In 2020, Bauer estimated at least 70% of pitchers used foreign substances.

Then, Bauer himself had a career year, winning the Cy Young Award in the pandemic-shortened season, while enjoying spin rate gains from 2019 of 15% on his four-seam fastball and 10% on his cut fastball, according to MLB data. 

MLB's memo states that it will chart year-over-year spin-rate data and also "changes observed during or immediately following certain game circumstances." 

The potentially draconian measures to curtail cheating by pitchers comes at a time the league desires more offense and more action in the game. The league batting average has dropped 10% since 2000, and while home runs were hit at record-setting paces in 2017 and 2019, the actual number of balls in play continues decreasing as strikeouts increase. 

The league has adjusted the baseball to, it hopes, bring home runs down to a reasonable level and incentivize making contact. Governing a pitcher's ability to achieve maximum spin may throw a bouquet to bedraggled hitters who now face a neverending parade of pitchers who increasingly approach 100 mph on the radar gun. 

Yet policing won't necessarily equal punishment. While the MLB Players' Association can't stop the league from monitoring its pitchers, it can appeal any fine or suspension the league may levy on a pitcher allegedly caught using foreign substances. 

Pitchers could certainly offer myriad defenses to explain spin-rate changes – the way they grip the baseball, modified delivery, weight-room gains and so on. Ultimately, an arbitrator may have to decide if the chain of custody on baseballs taken from the game is sufficient to warrant discipline. 

Similar to the league's disciplining of the Houston Astros after their sign-stealing practices were revealed, it may prove easier to punish employees aiding and abetting foreign-substance use; the memo notes that "all Club personnel are prohibited from assisting players in the use of foreign substances and also will be subject to discipline by the Commissioner, including fines and suspensions." 

Contributing: Bob Nightengale