FORT MYERS, Fla. — Major League Baseball’s new rule requiring a pitcher to face a minimum of three batters will become effective Thursday. The Red Sox are off that day, so manager Ron Roenicke gets an extra 24 hours to think about it.
He’s not too worried.
“It won’t affect us because our lefties get out everybody,” Roenicke said Saturday.
That’s at least half true.
The Sox likely are to have lefthanders Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor in their bullpen to open the season. Taylor overwhelmed lefties last season, holding them to a .203 batting average and .551 OPS, but the Sox are also comfortable with him facing righthanders considering they hit .245 against him last season with a .699 OPS.
Lefties were doomed against Hernandez, going 4 for 45 (.089) with 31 strikeouts last season. But righthanded hitters were 23 of 72 (.319) with nine extra-base hits and 17 walks.
Hernandez, 23, is working on how to handle righthanders. But he could be somebody Roenicke has to use carefully.
The rule says any pitcher, including the starter, must face a minimum of three batters. One exception is any pitcher who ends an inning could be taken out of the game at that point.
An injured pitcher also can come out of the game.
“That’s pretty cut and dry, what you can do with the three batters,” Roenicke said. “There’s not much to discuss. That’s what they came up with and we have to follow it.”
But it’s not quite that simple.
An intentional walk, for instance, counts as a batter even though the pitcher doesn’t have to throw four pitches any more. But a pickoff or a runner being thrown out stealing doesn’t count as a batter even though statistically the pitcher is credited with an out.
Then there’s this loophole: A pitcher could be replaced in the middle of an at-bat, and then the manager can call for an intentional walk with the next pitcher on the mound. That would count as a batter for the second pitcher.
So let’s say Nate Eovaldi works into the seventh inning — yes, I know, he never did that last season — and falls behind a tough righty, 2 and 0, with two lefthanders due up.
Roenicke could call in Hernandez and intentionally walk the righty. Then Hernandez can complete his three batters by facing the two lefties.
Sox pitchers issued only 22 intentional walks last season and eight in 2018. They expect that number to rise this season as Roenicke seeks better matchups.
Over time, analysts will have to weigh the risk of putting somebody on base against the benefit of a favorable matchup.
Chaim Bloom’s former team, the Rays, had 27 intentional walks last year, second in the American League.
Matt Barnes sees another issue. He is preparing his body for the idea of appearing in 80 games, with the knowledge that some of those appearances could only be for a batter or two.
“There are days when Rags [Roenicke] or Bushie [pitching coach Dave Bush] will ask me what I can give them and that will be one batter,” he said. “I’d rather them use me when they want to use me and not just to end the inning.”
MLB special assistant Joe Torre and new senior vice president of on-field operations Chris Young met with Roenicke and the Red Sox staff Feb. 29 to discuss the three-batter rule and other new procedures.
The conversation included MLB’s plans to regulate what, if anything, pitchers will be allowed to put on the ball to improve their grip.
There is a long-standing rule that pitchers can’t doctor the ball. But that has been loosely enforced because it’s understood the ball can get slick in cold weather and hitters don’t want to be accidental targets of wayward fastballs.
Unless there’s some obvious violation, managers won’t ask an umpire to check an opposing pitcher because they know some of their pitchers are using pine tar, sunscreen, or some other goop to get a better feel.
Roenicke acknowledged the topic came up with the MLB officials, but declined to give specifics.
“They’re trying to finalize everything. They want to make sure everything is coming from their office,” he said.
It’s a big topic in clubhouses.
“The problem is the balls aren’t always the same,” righthander Ryan Brasier said. “You get toward the end of some games and they’re practically new balls that aren’t really rubbed up. They need to figure out something everybody can be happy with.”
The Angels fired long-time visiting team clubhouse manager Brian Harkins last week after it was found he was selling his own mixture of rosin and pine tar to pitchers. He called it Go-Go Juice.
“I don’t know how anybody can sit back and say what the game is doing is not centered around the hitters,” Brasier said. “Everything they implement is to help hitters. There’s nothing they do to help pitchers. They want more offense.
“I don’t know how you implement all these rules to make the games faster, but also rules to encourage more scoring. That slows games down. I think a lot of us are curious to see how this all works out.”
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.