Alex Bregman’s brutal injury could force MLB to break longstanding tradition: “We don’t have to be doing that forever”
Bregman was the victim of a truly unfortunate situation that’s rarely seen in baseball.
Right now, the Chicago Cubs need all hands on deck for the final regular season stretch. The division crown is out of sight, and the top spot in the NL Wild Card race is up for grabs. Unfortunately, the team lost one of its best players for the home stretch this past weekend.
Alex Bregman suffered a brutal injury, and it came in the most unfortunate of ways. While standing in the on-deck circle, Bregman was struck in the face by a foul ball from his Cubs teammate . Bregman suffered multiple facial fractures , and his photo after it happened was jaw-dropping.
Bregman’s injury has had many fans wondering a couple of things. Firstly, many are surprised that this type of thing doesn’t happen more often . The margin for error while on-deck hitters stand so close to the batter’s box is very small. We’ve seen similar situations before, but it’s somewhat surprising it’s not more prevalent.
Trevor Plouffe calls for MLB to protect on-deck hitters going forward
But even though it doesn’t happen as often as one might assume, even former MLB players like Trevor Plouffe believe it’s time for baseball to make a change to avoid this type of injury in the future. Plouffe made his plea on the “ Talkin’ Baseball ” podcast on Monday.
It takes something like this to happen. Like, if this were in the playoffs and all of a sudden Alex Bregman can’t play anymore in the playoffs, it shocks people into action. Like, maybe this is close enough to it. How about we put a screen net or something?
There’s simply no reason to have a player be that close when he’s not actively hitting. Sure, being that close allows the on-deck hitter to get a better feel for the pitcher on the mound, but they can do that from the dugout, or with more protection around him.
