Small sample size alert: MLB's shift ban showing early increase in spring training offense

It is still very early in the process, but if you were hoping for Major League Baseball's shift bans to improve offense you have to be somewhat encouraged with the early spring training results.

Through the first week of games batting averages and runs scored have increased from the same point in last year's spring training games.

According to a report from ESPN, teams are hitting .272 and averaging 11.9 runs per game through February 28. Both numbers are increases through the same point in spring training a year ago when they were hitting just .259 with 10.6 runs scored per game. 

Is this a sign of things to come, or just some small sample size noise?

That obviously remains to be seen, but this has to be what baseball was hoping for when it implemented bans on defensive shifts for the start of this season. Aggressive shifting was seen as one of the major problems in the modern game because of how it took away offense and turned the game into what was seen as a three-outcome sport where players either hit a home run, struck out, or walked. It was seen as especially damaging for left-handed hitters. 

The true test will be to see how these numbers hold up and develop over the course of a full 162-game season when rosters are made up entirely of major leaguers and teams are actually trying to win.

Right now, you have minor leaguers that will not be part of the big clubs mixed in while teams experiment with different ideas and strategies that probably will not be used in real games. 

Still, the shift limits and the pitch clock, which has rapidly reduced the time of spring training games so far, figure to make the 2023 Major League Baseball season look dramatically different from recent seasons.