LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Major league baseball's new rule limiting home-plate collisions has some gray areas that Braves base runners and catchers may need to see enforced in game situations before they're entirely clear on what they can and can't do.
Rule 7.13, adopted this week, doesn’t ban home-plate collisions but states that runner attempting to score can’t “deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate).” Any runner doing so will be called out, and could possibly face further discipline in severe cases.
The Braves plan to discuss the new rule Wednesday before their Grapefruit League opener against the Tigers.
“From what I understand it’s pretty much the same game, just don’t go out of your way to run them over, which I don’t do anyway,” Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons said.
But there are other provisions, including that the catcher isn’t permitted to block the plate without the ball, and must give the runner a lane to part of the plate if the catcher is preparing to take a throw. If the catcher doesn’t comply, the runner can be called safe.
“I don’t think anything’s really changing,” Braves catcher Evan Gattis said. “A guy can’t go out of his way to run into you, to my understanding. And you can’t take the plate away (as a catcher) before you have the ball. I like it. Not much really changes. We always kind of give them a lane anyway.”
If the catcher blocks the plate a runner won’t be forced to slide, since to do so could endanger a runner trying to slide through or around a catcher wearing shin guards and standing squarely in front of the plate. Collisions are also permitted if a catcher backs into a runner’s lane to the plate while trying to field a throw.
Baseball and its players agreed to an addendum of sorts that states that a runner colliding with a catcher is not in violation “if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable.”
Gattis, who is 6 feet 3 and 250 pounds, said collisions will sometimes be unavoidable. “If the ball beats the runner by a lot and he runs into you, as long as it’s not malicious I’m all for it,” he said.
The sides also agreed to limit specifically how runners could collide with catchers, stating, “The failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runner’s lowering of the shoulder, or the runner’s pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation.”
Braves second baseman Dan Uggla said, “I think you can lower your shoulder if he’s blocking the plate. But that’s really the only time you should ever lower your shoulder. Because if he’s not blocking the plate, that’s a dirty move to try and run over him. But if he’s catching the ball and coming across you’ve got to protect yourself, too…. I do like (the new rule) for the fact they’re trying to protect catchers. But you can’t have it one-sided.”
When told about the rule prohibiting the lowering of the shoulder or use of elbows or hands by the runner, Simmons said, “You can’t lower your shoulder? So you’re saying you can’t protect yourself? So you’ve got to take it?… I’ll protect myself. If I get thrown out for protecting myself, it’s better than getting hurt and going on the DL.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, a former minor league catcher, said he liked the new rule in principle.
“We’re trying to keep the integrity of the game, having that play at the plate that’s exciting but also trying to give a little safety to our catchers,” he said. “And the way I interpreted the rule, it’s not going to change anything we teach defensively, catching-wise. Just give the runner a lane for him to slide. We’re going to teach our runners, or ask them to slide. But they don’t have to. They can come in hard, as they don’t deviate from their path or go in a malicious way, go out of their way to hurt the catcher, then we still have that play at the plate. So I think it’s good.
“I think it’s also one of those rules that the more it gets played – high schools have been doing it for I don’t know how many years, and colleges are the same way – in two or three years it’s going to be the norm. It really is. And we’re going to cut down the possibility of some of our catchers getting hurt.”
