2020 MLB Season: Versatile relievers are as valuable as gold

With the new three batter minimum rule taking effect for the 2020 MLB season, dominant relievers are more important than ever before.

With the implementation of a three batter minimum for pitchers set to begin during the 2020 MLB season, relievers who can manage to get right-handed and left-handed hitters out at roughly the same rate are now paramount to bullpen success.

Josh Hader, one of the most dominant relievers in baseball, managed to hold left-handed hitters to an impressive .143 batting average against in 2019. Arguably more impressive than that was the fact that right-handed hitters were limited to a .158 batting average against the lefty counterpart. Relievers like Hader come few and far between in the MLB, and those who manage to achieve splits like his will see their value and usage skyrocket in the new decade of baseball.

Managers’ jobs will become slightly more difficult with the new rule change as well. They can no longer hand the ball over to that left-handed specialist who struggles to get outs against anyone standing in the right side of the batter’s box- that is unless they want to test their luck for three batters in a row.

With managers producing strategic lineups and offensive production at an all-time high, relievers need both an arsenal of effective pitches and precise command to navigate an alternating lineup of left-handed hitters and right-handed ones. Without it, starters will be pushed to their limits every fifth day and likely wear themselves down when it comes time to make a late push for the playoffs.

In January, the reigning champion Washington Nationals announced that they signed reliever Will Harris to a three-year deal worth $24 million. Some scratched their heads at the decision to offer a three-year contract to a 35 year-old. However, when you factor in Harris’ success against both right-handers (.183 BAA) and left-handers (.207 BAA) in 2019, the decision to offer that contract suddenly becomes much more justified in the new landscape of Major League Baseball.

In an era of baseball where power reigns supreme (on offense and defense), starting pitchers simply cannot go as deep as they used to, making elite relievers inherently valuable to the game. As we usher in a new era of baseball, that value is sure to skyrocket to peak levels in the near future.