Ghost runners are for real in baseball now, and the game is worse for it

Red Sox manager Alex Cora has quite the way of explaining baseball. When the league decided in 2020 that extra-inning games would include placing a base runner on second base to start each half-inning, Cora pushed for chaos.

"If it's up to me," he told Boston reporters that year, "I'll go man on second no outs in the 10th, first and second no outs in the 11th, bases loaded and one out in the 12th. I guarantee you the game will be over at one point."

The "ghost runner" was baseball's plan to deal with the pandemic games. It was viewed as necessary to help teams protect their pitchers, a temporary rule to get through unique and trying times.

But it's no longer temporary.

Major League Baseball announced on Monday that extra-inning rule — starting each half-inning with a runner on second — is now permanent.

Booooo.

This season is highly anticipated because of a slew of rule changes. The banning of the shift, larger bases, the implementation of a pitch clock and restrictions on how many times a pitcher can throw to first — all are changes I want to see in hopes of games being shorter and more action-packed.

Starting extra innings with the gimmicky runner on second is not exciting, it is forced. It will be packaged as part of the new shortening-the-game initiative. The bigger reason is fewer starters are allowed to pitch deep into the games, more relievers are needed and 14-inning games would mean that every team would need a Willians Astudillo to pitch.

There should be consequences for games that are tied after nine innings — play until someone scores without gimmicks. But the way the game is managed nowadays, a team is burning four relievers a night by the end of nine. This is because of the marginalization of today's starting pitcher.

In 2010, 45 pitchers threw at least 200 innings, and there were 141 complete games — seven by Carl Pavano of the Twins, tied for second most in baseball.

In 2022, eight pitchers reached the 200-inning level. And there were only 20 complete games. No Twins starter pitched a complete game last season. But Rocco Baldelli isn't the only manager pulling starters in the middle innings.

We have been on a slow march to bullpen madness. Starters often are restricted to a couple of times through the order and aren't allowed to pitch out of many jams. And everyone watches the stadium pitch counter.

The average start length in 2022 was 5⅔ innings — an increase from 5 innings in 2021, actually, as sports emerged from the pandemic. Still, bullpens were required to get the final 10 outs of games last season.

If starters aren't pulled at the first sign of trouble, they are headed to the showers before Shohei Ohtani makes his third trip to the plate. High-fives and back slaps all around if he gets through six innings. Then let's start playing reliever roulette.

The result is that managers have burned through their best relievers by the end of nine innings. Now they have to find guys for extras. If the game goes 14 innings, some poor guy might pitch two or three gutsy innings to keep his team in contention — then get sent to the minors after the game in exchange for a fresher arm. He did his job, and his reward is pitching for the Class AAA Saints in two days.

If starters are allowed to pitch deeper in games when merited, relievers aren't needed as much and managers don't have to panic when a game goes extra innings. Instead we are watching the extinction of pitchers who earned the compliment, "He's a horse."

My compromise would have been to hold off on the runner at second until the 12th. That way, two innings would be played before Mr. Ghost Runner would appear. But it appears we won't ever see that.

What we will see is a representation of what baseball has become, a game fueled by algorithms and dependent on overmanaging.