With defensive shift data now available to us, let's try to figure out how well the Mariners have employed the shift.
Earlier this year, FanGraphs added infield shift data from Baseball Info Solutions dating back to 2010. The infield shift isn’t new, but its use has exponentially increased the last few years. In 2015, almost of a quarter of the time a ball was put in play, an infield shift was employed. With teams looking for every single competitive advantage, implementing infield shifts against pull happy batters seems to be the strategy du jour.
A couple of notes about the data:
- It only includes plate appearances where a ball is put in play.