CLEVELAND -- Terry Francona has read about new Commissioner Rob Manfred's ideas for improving baseball, but there is one that the Indians manager doesn't ever see happening -- limiting or eliminating defensive shifts.
During a Monday taping of an Indians town hall event, Francona said that he thought Manfred was discussing not closing himself off to any ideas, but that one seems a little far-fetched even for Francona.
"When you really think about it, you can't tell teams where to play people. There's so many things -- is a guy going to stand on second, how many times bring in an extra infielder when the game is on the line. It opens up a can of worms. It will never happen," Francona said. "It's just an idea to come up with more offense. The game is really cyclical and the game makes adjustments and it will be interesting to see where offenses go to get these runs back because it will happen."
Why has there been talk about shifts lately? According to The 2015 Bill James Handbook, there were 13,296 called in the majors compared to 2,464 in 2010. Last season the Indians used it 516 times which was eighth in the American League and an increase of 202 from 2013.
The Indians will have two of the top 12 players who have had the shift used on them the most last season. Brandon Moss, who was acquired in a trade from Oakland, saw the shift used on him in 398 plate appearances, which was fourth, while Carlos Santana saw it in 270 appearances, which was 12th.
Francona and Indians President Mark Shapiro took questions from fans and season-ticket holders during the event, which will air on SportsTime Ohio on Friday at 7 p.m. (additional airings this week are Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10 p.m.) Francona discussed some players while Shapiro gave an update on renovations to Progressive Field.
In assessing last season, Francona said it was easier to turn the page compared to 2013, when the Indians made the playoffs and lost in the AL Wild-Card game to Tampa Bay.
"Last year although we didn't want to accept it, it was going to be hard for us to make the playoffs," he said. "We fought until the last week of the season so you can kind of see it coming. You can come to grips with what went right and what didn't go right. It was quicker this year to turn the page and move to next year and the players did the same way."
