Although the sensationalist culture of baseball would tell you shifting is a fairly recent phenomenon, shifting is not as new as we think it is.
The shift was first used against Cy Young in the 1920’s and later used against Ted Williams in the 1946 World Series.
However, since 2010 the number of shifts in baseball is rising at an astonishing rate.
In 2010, all of Major League baseball shifted a total of 2,464 times. In 2015, that number rose to 13,296 times. And it continues to skyrocket every season. But the debate remains: is shifting an effective form of defense?