The conversation around takeout slides has become so tired by this point that it might as well be scripted. Any criticism, no matter how valid or how reasonably presented it may be, is met with the same response: Slides like these are just baseball plays, and the one in question was definitely clean, and the fact that it’s even under discussion is proof that the game is going soft. Then comes a little talk about the potential for retaliation, which may or may not amount to anything. Even the most extreme examples of the genre—like Chase Utley breaking Ruben Tejada's leg in the 2015 NLDS, which came just a month after Chris Coghlan tore Jung Ho Kang's MCL with a similar slide and helped spur a new rule designed to protect fielders—haven't changed the debate much.
OK, So Was That Anthony Rizzo Slide Dirty or Not?
