Again, as Rollins suggested, the rise of analytics takes some of the blame — but only some. The first factor he mentioned is the most important.

“Guys have become better at holding runners, being quicker to the plate and giving the catcher a chance,” White Sox Manager Robin Ventura, who played 16 years in the majors, said. “They used to never worry about slide steps and times to home plate. They would just say, ‘This guy could probably steal it,’ and he would go. Pitchers have figured out that they need to be part of the process to stop a guy from running, and if they don’t do it, they’re stupid, because you’re just putting a guy in scoring position.”

Teams combined for 2,505 stolen bases last season, the fewest in the 30-team era (since 1998) — and a startling 774 fewer than in 2011. But base stealing has tended to be cyclical throughout history. Between Ty Cobb in 1915 and Maury Wills in 1962, nobody stole 75 bases in a season — a much longer drought than the nine-year spell since Jose Reyes swiped 78 for the Mets in 2007.

A.J. Ellis, the Dodgers’ catcher, said the 75-stolen base season could come back.

“It just depends on how much Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton get on base,” Ellis said, “because they can outrun any catcher, and they can outrun any pitcher’s time coming home.”

Gordon has led the majors in steals the last two seasons, with 64 for the Dodgers in 2014 and 58 for Miami last year. He had a strong on-base percentage last season (.359), but Hamilton, the Cincinnati Reds’ speedster, managed 57 steals with a lowly .274 on-base mark.

Finding a player with the speed, plate discipline and instincts to steal 75 bases against today’s pitchers will not be easy. But Dayton Moore, the Royals’ general manager, believes faster players are on the way.

“We all know there was a period of time in our game that we’re not proud of: There were P.E.D.s, and the style of play has changed because of it,” he said. “We’re going to get more and more athletes playing our game as we go forward because of the commitment of Major League Baseball to grow the game at the grass-roots level. It’s going to take time, but I really believe we’re going to get a lot of our better athletes in this country playing baseball again. The game’s going to change. It’s going to be more of a speed game.”