Missing Bats: A Special Series in The Athletic

The greatness of baseball as we know it – all its beauty, its charm, its mystery – is based on balance. Success is opposed to failure. Chance is opposed to skill. The batter is opposed to the pitcher, the only player who can set in motion the chain of actions that has captivated generations of fans.

This balance is so important to the sport that any disruption will trigger a backlash. There have been periods of imbalance – the introduction of the live ball or the power boost of the steroid era – but the game has survived because the confrontation between batter and pitcher teaches an important lesson: Over time, things even out and what’s left is reality.

But what happens when that balance gets out of whack, and it’s not just another anomaly running its course? What happens when this massive shift is the result of a sprawling industry investing time and resources in a single idea that has since spread and fundamentally changed the game? What if, despite new rules designed to combat this problem, there is ultimately no turning back?

Missing Bats, a special series this week in The athleteexamines how baseball’s shattering metamorphosis over the past two decades can be traced back to a simple but powerful idea: the pitcher must make the batter miss the baseball, at all costs.

Our series examines the origin of the idea, its rapid spread throughout the industry, the cultural shift required to make it happen, the human toll of that change, attempts to address it, and what it all means for the future. Our team of journalists has conducted dozens of interviews with players, coaches, and executives closely associated with that change, revealing a sport that has reshaped its own culture and adopted cutting-edge tools that have allowed pitchers to take over the balance of power. Getting the bat to the ball has never been harder, and it’s all because pitchers have successfully rewired the game’s underlying DNA.

The symptoms of this change are visible every day: increased speed, more frequent arm injuries, a collapse in offensive power. The change was so drastic that the masters of the sport responded with equally drastic measures: the most significant rule change in baseball in decades. Much of it was done in the name of restoring that essential balance.

Will it be enough?

— Marc Carig, senior editor MLB, The athlete

(Illustration: Eamon Dalton / The athlete; Photo: Getty Images)