What MLB rule would you like to see eliminated?

The Tush Push isn’t gone yet, but it appears to be on life support. What baseball rule do you want gone?

On Tuesday, the NFL’s competition committee agreed to table a decision on the future of The Tush Push, the Philadelphia Eagles’ near-automatic short yardage play, to a later date. While it is a stay of execution for now, there appears to be a growing push among NFL coaches and front office executives to either ban the play itself, or all instances in which a player’s forward progress is aided by a teammate.

For our Eagles’ sister site Bleeding Green Nation, I wrote this week about the controversy over the play and, if the NFL does ban all pushing on the field, it would be the only intellectually honest decision. That said, banning the Tush Push is a cowardly way to try and eliminate an obvious advantage that only the world champs hold.

But it got me thinking. What rule in baseball would you want to see eliminated from the game forever? Maybe you just hate the aesthetics of it, or you think it provides an unfair advantage to another team. I’m going to limit this question to strictly on-field rules, so anything relating to salary structures, luxury taxes, draft picks, or items like that, are off limits.

Here are a few possibilities.

• Pitch clock: As part of MLB’s attempt to speed up the game, pitchers have 15 seconds to throw a pitch with the bases empty and 20 seconds after a foul ball or with runners on base. The positives are that it appears to have decreased the amount of dead time in games while also shortening them by about a half hour. The negatives are that it places undo pressure on the pitcher and alters the rhythm of the game.
• Limits on defensive shifts: Teams may not have more than two infielders on the same side of the diamond. I was a big proponent of this rule change, mostly from an aesthetic standpoint. I hated watching singles through the infield get vacuumed up into outs. Anyone miss the extreme shifts? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
• 3-Batter Minimum: Relief pitchers must pitch to at least three hitters before they can be removed from the game by the manager, unless the inning ends. This was done to prevent managers from constantly making pitching changes batter by batter, slowing games down to a crawl. But it also took away from some of the strategy of a game, as well.
• Extra Inning Ghost Runner: Starting in the 10th inning, the batting team automatically has a runner placed on second base to start every extra inning. This was done to increase scoring opportunities in extra innings and prevent marathon games that could result in managers burning through entire bullpens and risking injury to players. It also eliminated memory making contests and unique moments.
• Pitcher Disengagements: Pitchers are limited to two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per plate appearance, with a third disengagement resulting in a balk, unless the runner is picked off the base. This was meant to reduce the length of at-bats and increase stolen base attempts. The rule has succeeded in doing both, but has hurt pitchers’ ability to keep runners close.
• Designated Hitter in NL: For decades, the designated hitter only existed in the American League, but in 2022, the universal DH came into existence. Pitchers no longer hit, increasing offense and wasted at-bats, while also decreasing some of the in-game strategy that had become a staple of National League managers.
• Coach’s Challenge: A manager may institute a replay challenge to any call on the field, other than a ball or strike call, within 15 seconds after the play is over. A team retains its manager challenge if the replay official overturns any challenged call, even if other challenged calls are upheld. A team loses its manager challenge if no challenged calls are overturned.

So, what MLB rule would you like to see eliminated? If not one of these, what would you like to see gone? Answer in the comments, and have fun!