Baseball Substitution Rules

The rules regarding the substitution of players in a Major League Baseball game are not as simple as one would think. These rules, covered mostly by sections 3.03 through 3.09 of the official rules of MLB, cover situations such as pinch hitters, pinch runners and a pitcher coming into games in an emergency situation after an injury has occurred. The substitution rules of baseball also are applied in certain instances when a manager tries to keep a pitcher in the game at another spot before having him return to pitch.

  1. Types

    • The bottom line of the substitution rules is that once a player has come out of the game, he is not allowed to reenter the contest. A substitution can be made any time the ball is "dead" and not in play. A manager may elect to pinch hit for a batter or have another player run for a base runner; he can also take a pitcher out of the game and replace him with another at any time--with one exception. Hitters that bat for another player take that player's place within the batting order. When two or more players come in defensively, the manager needs to alert the head umpire for whom these players are coming in for so their spots in the batting order will be established.

    Effects

    • The starting pitcher, which has been written down in the batting order that is in the hands of the head umpire, must pitch to at least one batter until that batter has either made an out or gotten on base. Only an injury or some type of illness that keeps the pitcher from being able to continue will allow a substitute pitcher to come in the game before the first batter has been handled.

    Injury

    • If a player comes off the bench to replace a position player that has been injured during the course of play, that replacement is allowed as many as five warm-up throws. In the event a pitcher is injured during a game and has to come out unexpectedly, the substitute pitcher is allowed as many pitches to warm up as the umpire feels is appropriate, rather then the standard eight which are given under normal circumstances for a new pitcher coming into the game.

    Pinch hitter

    • A pinch hitter is defined as a player that comes into the game to bat for another player. Once a pinch hitter has been officially announced as coming into the game, then that player for which he is hitting for is out of the game and cannot return. If the opposing manager opts to change pitchers then the other manager can, if he so chooses, pinch hit for the pinch hitter with another hitter. However, if this is done then the original pinch hitter is out of the game and unable to return as well.

    Expert Insight

    • Some managers will, on rare occasions in an MLB contest, move a pitcher to another spot on the field and bring in another pitcher to pitch. The idea is to be able to keep the pitcher at another position in the game so he can come back in to continue pitching after the substitute pitcher has faced at least one batter. However, rule 3.03 states that this changing of positions is allowed only once during an inning.