Will Texas Rangers Use Loophole in Shift Rules?

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy addresses the idea of shifting the left fielder to right in certain situations.

Texas Rangers pitcher Brock Burke issued a warning regarding MLB's new rule changes before the start of Spring Training. 

"There's going to be teams that find ways to cheat the system. Someone will cheat the system, and everyone else will adapt to it," he said in January.

One of the more prominent rules is the shift ban, where infielders cannot stand past the dirt, and teams must have two infielders on one side of second base and two on the other.

Earlier in the month, the Boston Red Sox found a loophole by moving the left fielder to play where the second baseman would usually play when a team shifted against a left-handed hitter. Boston's shift on Joey Gallo might the start of a post-shift-ban alignment.

Inside the Rangers asked manager Bruce Bochy if implementing the left fielder to shallow right field would be possible in the season.

"I can see that happening," Bochy said. "I don't think very often. I'm sure it's going to be brought up to me. It was when I was in San Francisco, doing things like that."

Bochy doesn't suspect that Corey Seager would see many of those shifts, despite the league shifting him more than any player in baseball last season. Only a couple of hits during spring would have been outs if teams shifted against Seager.

"He's hitting the ball in the air a lot," Bochy said.

As for Bochy and the possible usage of the outfield shift, he doesn't like it, as it creates more of a risk than a potential reward.

"I'm not a huge fan of it because you turn a base hit into a triple, probably," he said. "I don't think you'll see as much as you'd think."

The Rangers have yet to utilize the outfield shift this spring. Settling on an Opening Day lineup of outfielders, especially at center and left likely has a lot to do with that.

However, it could be something the Rangers try at some point before the regular season.

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You can find Alex Plinck on Twitter @aplinckTX.

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