This radical new outfield rule MLB is testing could play to Twins’ strengths

LAS VEGAS – The Arizona Fall League, a six-week prospect showcase, has long served as a testing lab for experimental rule changes that sometimes work their way to the major league level. The league is investigating a radical idea this year. Four seasons after MLB implemented restrictions on where infielders could stand, hoping it would manufacture more offense, the latest exploration is exploring whether there should be rules about where outfielders can stand. At one ballpark in the Arizona Fall League, the home ballpark for the Twins’ prospects in the league this year, all three outfielders have a specific area where they must stand when pitches are thrown. The corner outfielders are positioned much closer to the foul lines than their typical alignment. The experimental restrictions on outfield alignments use the same Hawk-Eye technology that is used for the balls and strikes challenge system, and StatCast data. In the stands, behind home plate, there is a LED board that signals whether an outfielder is compliant with a green circle, a red “X,” or a yellow dash if he is on the border. Advertisement FanGraphs first reported the league was piloting an experimental rule change for outfielders’ positioning, and Baseball America found halfway through the six-week season that hits and runs were up more than 30% at that specific ballpark compared to the others with a massive increase in doubles and triples. It will likely take several years before any version of an outfield positioning rule reaches to the majors, but the league is open to researching unique ways to create more offense. MLB hitters compiled a .244 batting average this year, one point higher than it was before the league banned infield shifts. The league’s on-base percentage (.318) was six points higher than it was in 2022, but still 15 points lower than 2009. “I got to see one game with it played that way; it’s interesting,” said Paul DePodesta, the Colorado Rockies president of baseball operations. “There are immediately some things that pop up that you’re like, OK, that would probably need to be fixed.” Twins General Manager Jeremy Zoll said he supported the league experimenting with different ideas, but he hadn’t spent much time paying attention to the new outfield positioning rule to form an opinion about it.