MLB Investigates Baseballs As League Continues To Approach Record Breaking Home Run Totals

The long ball will never go out of style in baseball, as it often gives the game its most exciting moments. Now more than ever, it stands as the apparent favorite option for sluggers to drive in runs. Just two years ago in 2017, hitters broke the record more most home runs hit in a season with 6,105. This year’s home run totals jeopardize that colossal figure however, as the league currently continues a pace poising to deliver 6,591 home runs by the season’s end, having tallied 3,003 already.

In response, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred turned to science for an explanation for the phenomenon. After assembling multiple scientists to investigate the baseball manufacturing process and its potential to effect home run frequency, the league sought out to discover any potential “juicing” of the baseballs, aiming to reveal what’s behind the increasing home run totals.

The company burdened with making the MLB‘s baseballs is Rawlings, which after the investigation helped Manfred confirm that no influential changes to the way in which they create the baseballs has occurred. Manfred stated, “[Rawlings] hasn’t changed their process in any meaningful way. They haven’t changed their materials.” However, Manfred’s team hypothesized that today’s expanding technology has allowed Rawling to center the pill they place towards each baseball’s center more accurately, possibly effecting the ball’s drag. Manfred explained as he stated, “We think one of the things that may be happening is they’re getting better at centering the pill, [which] creates less drag. In addition to that, there’s all these man-made issues: hand-stitched, where it’s stored after it’s made, where it’s stored at the ballpark, who puts the mud on the ball, how much mud they put on the ball. It’s really difficult to isolate any single cause. But we do think it’s a drag issue.”

This past May, hitters drove out 1,135 home runs, the most hit during any month in MLB history. Players such as Christian Yelich, Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger, Hunter Renfroe, and Gary Sanchez primarily contribute to the cause, as they lead the league in home run totals, all hitting over 22 thus far.  With no concrete or fixable issue present, MLB pitchers will most likely continue to sigh as the slug fest poises to continue.