Manfred: Golden At-Bat Idea Has Gotten "A Little Buzz" - MLB Trade Rumors

Perhaps the most extreme suggestion that the commissioner has publicly floated would be the possibility of implementing a “golden at-bat” rule. Jayson Stark of The Athletic published a lengthy piece on Monday detailing potential variations of that concept.

At its core, the golden at-bat idea is to allow a team one opportunity to call upon a hitter who is in the lineup but not due for the upcoming at-bat. It’d be somewhat akin to pinch hitting with a player who is already in the game. As Stark notes, the rule could be narrowed to limit when teams could use the golden at-bat (e.g. after a certain inning, only when they’re trailing, etc.)

This is a terrible idea - not sure how they can even consider this.

Manfred stole this from the Savannah Bananas

Just have your best hitter on the bench if you want them up in the biggest spot of the game.

How can they even consider this terrible idea?

This is dumb.. would make baseball seem like a real life video game on exhibition mode using some sort of cheat code.

That’s actually what it kind of it.. like an old school video game cheat code where you press Pause then Up Up L R L R hold A press start and then it allows you to swap your 9th place hitter for Mark McGwire even though he’s batting 3rd in the lineup. 😂

Seems like a joke but come on. Why mess something up that isn’t broken. You know I mean.. if your team is down 2 runs in the ninth with the bases loaded and 2 outs and your worse hitter is up.. how is it fair to the other team if say the Dodgers in that situation have Miguel Rojas batting and they get to do a magic swap for Ohtani and he comes in and hits a walk off double or HR 😂 If I was the opposite team I would be pissed. Actually that would be funny as hell.. I’m not really an avid baseball fan after this past season so I think my most recent Marlins fandom lasted from 2020-2023 seasons.. so that means I won’t really make an effort to watch many games this upcoming year or probably for the next few years down the road. But man.. if the time comes when I become a baseball fanatic again. At this rate the sport will look so different than it did when I was young. Sheesh. 😂

2 hours ago, SirFishFan said:

This is dumb.. would make baseball seem like a real life video game on exhibition mode using some sort of cheat code.

That’s actually what it kind of it.. like an old school video game cheat code where you press Pause then Up Up L R L R hold A press start and then it allows you to swap your 9th place hitter for Mark McGwire even though he’s batting 3rd in the lineup. 😂

Seems like a joke but come on. Why mess something up that isn’t broken. You know I mean.. if your team is down 2 runs in the ninth with the bases loaded and 2 outs and your worse hitter is up.. how is it fair to the other team if say the Dodgers in that situation have Miguel Rojas batting and they get to do a magic swap for Ohtani and he comes in and hits a walk off double or HR 😂 If I was the opposite team I would be pissed. Actually that would be funny as hell.. I’m not really an avid baseball fan after this past season so I think my most recent Marlins fandom lasted from 2020-2023 seasons.. so that means I won’t really make an effort to watch many games this upcoming year or probably for the next few years down the road. But man.. if the time comes when I become a baseball fanatic again. At this rate the sport will look so different than it did when I was young. Sheesh. 😂

Good for you and I like your video game analogy too. I slowly stopped obsessively watching sports 8 yrs ago and now I only check the box scores, it’s just as fun and saves me time & stress. The “golden rule” screams entertainment for marketing grease balls who only want to expand their corporate pockets. I believe there are three consumer reasons why sports is just a product these days. Sport card investors (Golden Rule hyping up superstars), fantasy draft leagues (increased scoring) and reaching a younger fan base (entertainment).