Utley Rule Has Fundamentally Changed Baseball

A year ago, nobody would have given a second thought to Jose Bautista's slide into Rougned Odor at second base. Given the highly charged circumstances surrounding the play, the Rangers' hotheaded second baseman might still have whirled and punched Bautista in the jaw, triggering a brawl that launched a zillion replays, but that's another story. The slide itself would have been viewed as aggressive but routine—a "baseball play" as old as the game itself.

No more. Chase Utley changed all that. Now baserunners must stay on the straight and narrow—literally—and display uncharacteristic decorum when approaching second base in a double-play situation.

The Utley rule—so called because the Dodger runner broke the leg of the Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada with a hostile, sickening slide in last year's playoffs—was designed to protect infielders. But many in baseball express public ambivalence and private exasperation over the rule, which was born of a knee-jerk reaction to a highly unusual play and has fundamentally changed the way the game is played.

"I'm not a fan of the slide rule the way it's stated now," says Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar. "I think there was a need for a change in the (old) slide rule. We saw what Utley did last year and that should never be allowed. But going in hard and trying to break up a double play is part of the game. You see how crucial not turning a double play can be."

The new rule defines a "bona fide slide" as one in which the runner:

• "begins his slide (makes contact with the ground) before reaching the base;
• "is able and attempts to reach the base with his hand or foot;
• "is able and attempts to remain on the base (except home plate) after completion of the slide; and
• "slides within reach of the base without changing his pathway for the purpose of initiating contact with a fielder."

The rule does not ban contact. If the infielder is in his way, a runner can still come in hard—so long as he checks all of the boxes listed above.

"You can break up a double play because a lot of time the second baseman is going to be in your path," says Toronto's third-base coach and infield instructor Luis Rivera, himself a former infielder. "The rule doesn't say you cannot hit the second baseman. The rule says that you cannot go past the bag and you cannot go out of your way to hit the second baseman. But if the guy's in the middle of the bag and you slide in front of the bag and you hit him, that's fine."

Before Sunday's ruckus in Texas, Bautista had been hit by a pitch as retribution for famously flipping his bat after his iconic homer against the Rangers last October. Moments later he slid hard into second in a bid to break up a double play. He slid a little late and, in violation of the new rule, came to rest beyond the bag. Odor, who was covering second, took offence and the melee was on.

"I think the slide was clean," Rivera says. "He slid almost on the bag and he didn't go too far past the bag. He slid straight to the bag. It wasn't like he was going after him."

In his postgame comments, however, Bautista put his slide into a slightly different context, which is probably part of the reason he was slapped with a one-game suspension.

"I had a hard slide at second base. I could have injured him. I chose not to. I just tried to send a message that I didn't appreciate getting hit," Bautista said.

Quite apart from the message Bautista sent, the Utley rule has altered, in ways both obvious and subtle, the way runners and middle infielders behave in potential double-play situations. The rule infuriates Buck Martinez, the Jays' TV play-by-play man who played for 17 years in the big leagues.

"It eliminates two of the most anticipated plays in the game," Martinez says. "When you're in a tight game, late in the game, and you've got a great baserunner at first base, the possibility of him breaking up a double play might lead to a run, might lead to a win. Now you've eliminated that."

That doesn't mean a runner cannot legally break up a double play, but it significantly reduces his chances, in Martinez's view. It also means that if the runner's slide is deemed illegal, the double play is automatic.

Not only does the rule impose a new degree of caution upon the runner, but it also eases the mind of the pivot man at second, Martinez says.

"That runner puts pressure on the defence, knowing that there's a good baserunner over there that might be breaking up a double play," he says. "So now you eliminate any of their concerns whatsoever. The distraction of fielding a ball and waiting for him to make contact with you is gone."

In the process, the infielder—taught from puberty how to avoid getting hurt while turning a double play—might start to let down his guard. And as an indirect result of a rule designed to protect him, he could wind up getting hurt.

"They've taken the instinctive play out of the game—the anticipation of a great play at second base, a hard slide, a clean slide," Martinez says. "I am not suggesting I endorse injuring players, but I certainly endorse putting the fear of contact in their mind, and that's been eliminated."

At least two games have been decided by the Utley rule this year. A Bautista slide that was deemed improper ended a game in Tampa after a wild throw on a double-play ball had given the Jays two runs and a lead. Houston lost a game in similar fashion when Colby Rasmus slid past second base. And on the same day of Bautista's fateful slide in Tampa, Atlanta's Nick Markakis was similarly carded for a slide in a game against Washington.

Like the blocking-the-plate rule introduced in 2014, the Utley rule will probably undergo some tweaks in time. Meanwhile, runners long accustomed to following their instincts will have to alter their thinking on the basepaths.

"Now, if you're running and you forget about the rule, you might do it again—not on purpose, just as a reaction—because that's how you've always done it," Rivera says. "So it's going to be a while before the guys learn to make sure to stay close to the bag and slide in front of the bag."

One of the less obvious effects of the Utley rule is the advantage it gives the defence, especially with runners on first and second, Martinez says.

"People don't think about this, but if I'm the first baseman in that situation, I don't have to cut the runner's lead down at all," he says. "I become a much better fielder. I'm not concerned about his lead because if he slides into our guy, he's out. So now you move the first baseman wherever you want him."

The new rule allows video reviews, an option both Rivera and Martinez oppose. They say umpires should be the sole arbiters of whether a runner obeyed the rule and whether he intended to injure the defender. Replay officials in New York should stay out of it.

"If his intent is to injure on the play, the umpire can then throw the guy out of the game and it's an automatic two-week suspension," Martinez says. "That would take care of everything. You don't need a rule. You don't need anything else."

Rivera agrees that the Utley rule should permit no challenges. Why?

"Because that's the way you play the game," he says, his voice rising. "You don't try to hurt people. If somebody tries to hurt people, get them out of the game. You've got to play the game hard. Now you're playing a little bit softer because of the rules."

Pillar expects tweaks. And he has some suggestions.

"I think you should have to slide before the base," he says. "You have to try to maintain yourself on the bag or at least touch the bag. You should have to go in with your cleats down. You should have to stay below the knee or the shin. That's where guys get hurt.

"To have to slide directly into the base puts the runner in a very different position. If (infielders) don't have to fear that they have to get out of the way, you're leaving your hands and your body parts in danger of middle infielders coming down and landing on you. That's how I hurt this finger," he says, displaying a heavily taped digit.

Veteran Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is guarded when asked how he feels about the Utley rule.

"You try to follow the rules because you don't want to put your team in a bad spot where it's a double play if you don't obey the rule," he says.

But he sounds like a player who is not entirely happy with the new edict. Like Pillar, he expects refinements after major-league officials have a suitable sample size to examine.

"After this year, I think that question will be easier to answer because you'll have so many more experiences at second," Tulowitzki says. "But right now, it's tough. You want to protect the players, but you also want to have some old-school baseball in it as well. It's a tough subject right now."