MLB: New York Mets-Workout

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The defensive shift has become a nettlesome topic in baseball. The sport's conservative guard is annoyed by it. New Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred floated the idea of banning them. Teams are growingly devoted to it.

Hitters, of course, abhor them. The shift has contributed to the continuing decrease in offense - the reason why Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said this weekend at the MIT Sloan Sports Conference that the left-handed hitter who can hit .320 and 30-plus home runs has been eradicated.

But pitchers also find the shift vexing - and sometimes argue against it.

Not all are on the board with its flourishing use. And that disconnect serves as another flashpoint for the communication bridge between front offices that rely heavily on ideas driven by advanced analytics that peck away at baseball's conventional thinking.

While not among the sport's most prominent employers of the shift, the Mets use them often enough. Last season, however, they ran into a quandary.

Zack Wheeler, one of the team's foundational pitchers, requested they not use the shift as often when he was on the mound. While the Mets did not stop using the shift altogether, the team obliged. They continued to shift with him on the mound but it was less frequent.

Wheeler is not a proponent of the shift, recognizing he goes against the trend.

"I don't want to piss anybody off but, honestly, I don't like it," he said. "Teams are starting to be more analytical these days. So I hate to say that numbers don't lie because I don't like analytics all that much but I'm not the boss here. I really can't control it. They know where I stand on that."

When he approached the Mets coaching staff to consider a change, he offered a logical argument: The shift did not account for his particular arsenal of pitches.

As one example, he elucidated how it made him wary of throwing a slider in the dirt with a runner on third base because it may escape from the catcher. If there is no third baseman to hold the runner on, he can score more easily. It is not an issue that Bartolo Colon faces.

"It put him in a tough situation because his stuff is so good," manager Terry Collins said.

"He was right. We said 'Listen, we're not going to take the shift away. We're just going to alter it a little bit because the numbers tell us they're still going to hit the ball over here. We made a little adjustment. His argument was legitimate. You got some guys, they give up a hit against a shift and the first thing they say is 'That darn shift'. Well, we can't be everywhere."

Collins understands the dynamics of the two philosophies about the shift. He says he was among the first to deploy it. As the Angels manager in the late 1990's, he kept Joe Maddon as his bench coach. Maddon became the foremost purveyor of the shift as the Rays manager but at the time he used it on Ken Griffey Jr.

Griffey bunted. Collins said it created an "uproar."

The next day Collins approached the then-Mariners star and succinctly laid out his thinking.

"You can have all the singles you want big boy. All of them you want'," he remembers saying.

"His chances of getting 30 bunt singles as opposed to 30 homers -- I'll take that chance."

With Wheeler, he understood his young pitcher's disavowal. The shift is meant to play the percentages. Teams use it because historical data tells them a batter is likely to hit the ball into it more often than not.

But when that doesn't happen, it can cause a stir. Wheeler recognizes its advantages, too, but is not altogether sold.

He offers a scenario that can inflame the tension for pitchers.

"Say a guy is a pull hitter, a lefty, and you're pitching him away," he says. "He's a major league hitter, he's going to go that way with it like you're supposed to. But when the shortstop is playing second base and the ball goes straight through the hole, I'm like 'Seriously, that's out.' If you're playing baseball the way it started from Day One, that would have been out. And I'm just like an old school guy -- I'm young but I'm an old school guy at the same time. I believe in all the old school stuff."

At the Conference this weekend, Alderson asserted that the Mets stopped using a shift behind one of its pitchers. Wheeler saw the information relayed in a tweet that day and, when asked, told a reporter he guessed it might have been him and, indeed, it was.

Alderson says Mets had one player last year who reacted so strongly to hits through shift that they couldn't employ it behind him. — Alex Speier (@alexspeier) February 28, 2015

Alderson would not confirm Wheeler was the pitcher but said his words were an attempt to make a point about the education and understanding needed from players to see what the Mets are trying to do.

Speaking generally, not about any one pitcher, Alderson says he is willing to make concessions but that if it were to happen, it could also be a failure in communication. A common derailment for the use of analytics has been the inability to convey its benefits to the decision-makers on the field - namely players and coaches.

"I think that's the important part of the process," he said. "Then it's a question of how does it translate to what goes on on the field. There's several stages from collecting the data to actually executing on the field. One of those things is making sure the players -- as well as the coaches initially -- understand how it's intended to benefit the team."

He added, again generally: "Some coaches, some players require more explanation than others to get buy-in."

Collins understands the hesitation. How the focus can divert from the many times a shift can help a pitcher and prevent a hit to the one time it hurts them.

The data, he believes, will prove that teams that shift more will win more. And players must adapt to that reality.

"Because by the way, if you go to someplace else, they're going to shift too," he said. "If you look at the teams that didn't shift last year, I'm not sure their success was as good as the teams that did."

Collins' point holds true. The number of times the shift has been used has grown exponentially each season - more than five-and-a-half more times in 2014 than 2011, according to the 2015 Bill James Handbook. And the more teams use the shift, the more runs they save on average, the book says.

Still, the Mets have reached an accord with their pitcher, who appreciated that they listened. While the numbers may be on their side, sometimes there are other considerations to be had.

"We said you're right," Collins "You're too important not to have confidence on the mind. So we'll make the adjustments."

Mike Vorkunov may be reached at mvorkunov@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mike_Vorkunov. Find NJ.com Mets on Facebook.

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