I love the four-man outfield. I loved when Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller tried it with the Sonoma Stompers, and I loved it the first time I saw it in person, two years ago in Minnesota. In an age where the dominant mantra among hitters is “elevate and celebrate”, it makes all the sense in the world to optimize your fly-ball defense.
Fly balls, interestingly, might be the one chink in the armor of baseball’s best pitcher, Gerrit Cole. In 2019 Cole struck out a higher percentage of hitters than anyone in the history of the game.