JUPITER, Fla.—Cardinals staffers and their pitchers the other day talked over the intricacies and the various potentials of the three-batter minimum that pitchers, mostly relievers, must adhere to for the first time this year in Baseball 2020. “There’s a lot of different things on the table with it,” said manager Mike Shildt Sunday.
Shildt said statistics he had seen showed that this was an issue just four percent of the time last season and there will be game situations, where a team is up or down by three or four runs, when it won’t be a problem for a lefthanded reliever, say, to face three or four hitters, no matter what side from which they swing.