Xander Bogaerts Opens Up About MLB’s New Rules On Foreign Substances

It sounds like Xander Bogaerts is in favor of the new Major League Baseball rules.

It has been no secret in recent weeks that MLB has been cracking down on the use of foreign substances by pitchers, and all of their new rules (and penalties) officially went into effect Monday.

New York Mets’ Jacob deGrom was the first player to be searched for sticky substances during yet another impressive outing Monday, but he was clean and went on to toss five scoreless innings.

It has been a down season across the board offensively this season in baseball, but now with these changes in place, spin rate already has seen a decline. It raises the question as to whether it will have an effect on the league’s sub-par offensive numbers so far in 2021.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts opened up about the new rules prior to the squad’s Tuesday night series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays and discussed what he expects to see from them.

“I don’t know in general if the offense will be up in a game. Us as players, we go through ups and downs, regardless,” Bogaerts told reporters over Zoom prior to Boston’s opener against the Rays. “I think I’ve had my last couple at-bats in these last couple weeks that I was like, you know, the slider isn’t biting the way it normally bites, so you kinda (think) ‘Hey, that’s a little weird.’ Especially from guys, I’m telling you their sliders were pretty unhittable. … Maybe it has something to do (with foreign substances) or maybe not. … I would make a pretty good bet that it was.”

Bogaerts, who already is in the middle of arguably his most impressive offensive season of his career, most certainly didn’t hide his excitement when talking about how things might change with the new rules.

“It’s exciting. Obviously we know how the offensive stuff has been this year. A lot of talk about that. We’ve definitely faced some good pitching. … We’re playing the Rays right now. These guys, they’ve been known for having good pitching. But it’s gonna be interesting to see how this thing is gonna go. I was watching a couple games last night and just seeing the umpires going to the pitchers is pretty weird. It’s something we’re not used to, but … we gotta respect that. Hopefully it’s an even field for everyone.”

These last few weeks probably have led to more “spider tack” Google searches than ever before. But one thing’s for sure, it’s a new day in MLB.