A question I should know. Can a pitcher be replaced during a batter’s turn at bat or does the manager have to wait until that batter is done? Obviously an injury to the pitcher overrides any rule.
Yes. They can replaced mid at-bat.
More precisely, as long as they’d pitched to three batters, they can be replaced mid-at-bat.
The three-batter rule is fairly recent (instituted in 2020). Here’s an expanded description of how it works, and the two general exceptions:
- If a pitcher finishes an inning, he can be replaced at the start of the next inning
- If a pitcher becomes injured or ill, he can be replaced immediately
If a pitcher is removed due to injury, is there a required IL stint?
Not as far as I know. Injured players miss the rest of a game, or even a few games, without a trip to the IL all the time; if you put a pitcher on the IL, you lose him for at least 15 days (position players for at least 10 days).
If it was discovered that a player (or team) faked an injury to get around the three-pitcher rule, there would undoubtedly be fines and stern warnings from MLB.
Well, you can always claim back spasms or cramps. I’m surprised there isn’t a rule, since there is a rule for damn near everything in baseball. An IL stint would be too extreme, but if you’re pulled before facing three batters, it wouldn’t be a shocker if they required three games off, or similar.
It doesn’t seem to be a problem, so just spitballin’ here.
It happened in last night’s game. The Dodgers’ Alex Vesia (LHP, #51) came in to get the final out of the 7th (he pitched to only one batter), and then while warming up in the 8th he didn’t feel right and he was pulled. He might have an oblique strain. There’s talk that he might not be available for the NLCS, so there’s no talk about any mandatory IL.
Alex Vesia ‘Highly Unlikely’ To Be On Dodgers Postseason Roster For NLCS Vs. Mets
I did not know this facet of the rule. Ignorance fought.
He finished the inning so it didn’t matter as far as the rule goes.
Bullitt’s post makes it sound like Vesia had started warming up (i.e., had taken the field) in the 8th, when they then pulled him due to injury. I think that, though I may be wrong, if a pitcher begins warmups on the mound, he’s considered to be in the game; it would not surprise me that, even if he had yet to throw a pitch to a batter in the 8th, he would still have been required to face two batters that inning (without the injury), because he’d already been taking warmup pitches.
If the Dodgers had pulled Vesia between innings, and sent a different pitcher out there to warm up in the 8th, it would have been different.
Ah. I thought he was warming up in the bullpen
I can only think of one example, though I’m sure I’ve seen more. The Phils were playing the Mets, and the Mets pitcher was getting wild. He may have already hit someone, and he had come close with others. After he accidentally buzzed Roy Halladay (remember those days, when pitchers batted?) without hitting him, the Mets manager hightailed it out of the dugout and pulled the pitcher. The reliever finished up the AB.
I say “accidentally” because I don’t think anyone believed the pitcher was trying to send Roy a message. But the unwritten rule is that after a certain point, even unintentional HBPs are up to the manager to control. Get somebody else in there. If the wild pitcher had then hit our ace after already showing he lost his control, the dugouts would have been emptied.
Here’s an example I found via Google:
Girardi makes pitching change mid-at-bat | MLB.com
Girardi made the change with a 1-2 count and 2 outs. When asked about it later, he replied ‘Strategy’.
Well, that’s a head-scratcher. Not just the 1-2 count with 2 outs, but also it was a lefty/lefty matchup with Wilson and Bradley Jr…
But it would be a bit weird to fake an injury for matchup reasons since the pitcher was eligible to be replaced at the start of the inning anyway. I could definitely see it if they wanted Vesia to face the first hitter but not the second one. In that situation “back spasms” would be pretty good cover to get the pitcher you wanted in there.
ETA: Unless there was a pinch hitter announced… I’ll have to go check the box score.
ETA2: Nah, it was Bogaerts hitting.