MLB makes ‘zombie runner’ permanent; restricts position players pitching. Here’s how it might impact the Phillies

One of Major League Baseball’s more divisive rule changes of the past few years is reportedly being made permanent. The “zombie runner,” in which each half inning in extras during the regular season begins with a runner on second, will remain in the rulebook moving forward, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

The rule has been met with mixed reviews in the baseball community since its inception before the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Some prefer the format of the game to remain constant until a winner is decided; some hold that marathon games place too much strain on pitching staffs and make for unnecessarily long four-plus-hour affairs. 

It might be good news for the Phillies, who have gone 22-14 in extra-inning games under the new rule, well above their overall .513 clip during that span. (That 22-14 figure doesn’t count postseason games, in which the zombie runner rule doesn’t apply.) They went 8-6 in extra-inning games in 2022.

Rob Thomson, coincidentally or not, is a fan. The Phillies’ skipper said during the World Series that while he doesn’t want the postseason to include zombie runners (which it will continue not to), from a roster management perspective, he supports it during the regular season. 

“When you get into one of those 17, 18-inning games, you’re going through pretty much everybody out of your bullpen, and then you’ve got to start making player moves,” Thomson said in late October, per The New York Post. “And when guys have to be down 15 days and you just sent down three or four of your pitchers, you can’t bring them back. Then guys are coming off the roster to fill in, and that’s just not — you don’t want that.”

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MLB is also altering the rules regarding when position players are allowed to pitch: A team must be leading by 10 in the ninth inning or trailing by eight (at any point in the game) to summon a position player to pitch. Once the game enters extra innings, position players can pitch at any time.

Three Phillies position players appeared on the mound in the 2022 season: Darick Hall, Nick Maton and Garrett Stubbs; Stubbs led the way with 3 ⅔ innings over four appearances. 

If anything, the somewhat tighter restrictions on position players pitching might create a greater need for the Phillies (and any team) to carry at least one long reliever on the roster. That could bode well for someone like Cristopher Sánchez or Nick Nelson, two of several names vying to be the 13th pitcher on the roster.

In reality, though, it will likely have little impact on roster decisions. Of the Phillies’ seven position player appearances on the mound last season, only two would have been disallowed under the new rules; Maton and Hall each appeared once with the Phillies trailing by six.

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