HBP stat is increasing in the MLB: Why are pitchers hitting more batters?

Whit Merrifield had already been simmering for weeks. He’d seen his teammates hit, heard the crack of fastballs connecting with bone or helmet, and now, it was his turn to feel that all-too-familiar sting. A 94.5 mph fastball, sent flying without direction, smashed into the part of his helmet just behind his left ear, dropping him to one knee. He yelled toward the mound, anger and fear mixing in his voice as he wobbled in the dirt.

“It’s bullshit; it’s driving me nuts,” Merrifield spat later, his fury uncontained. “Where the game is at right now, it’s just ridiculous.”

This wasn’t just another wild pitch, not to Merrifield. To him, it was a symptom of something much larger, something broken in the way pitchers are handling themselves on the mound. After years in the game, Merrifield’s frustration boiled over. “Guys are throwing hard as they can and they don’t care where the ball goes,” he said, recounting the moment rookie pitcher Jeff Criswell lost control of the fastball that knocked him out of the game. “Without being over dramatic, that was my life on the line right there.”

Merrifield had a point, and it wasn’t just personal. He wasn’t the first Braves player this season to be targeted by a high-and-tight heater. In fact, he was the fourth in less than a month. Austin Riley, the Braves’ star third baseman, took a 97 mph pitch to the hand and is now likely out for the season. Michael Harris and Travis d’Arnaud had also spent time recovering from similar incidents.

“I’m out of the game, but Criswell gets to stay in and pitch,” Merrifield fumed. “I’m probably not going to be able to play tomorrow - no repercussion on his part.”

And the stats would seem to bear that out. When compiling the numbers of hit-by-pitch per season, nineteen of the top twenty years in all of baseball history have been in the 21st century. Since 2000, more batters have been hit than in most of the previous century and a half that preceded it.

With the National League adopting the designated hitter, pitchers are now completely untouchable, and that is the root of the problem says Merrifield.

The rules of baseball, Merrifield argued, had changed, and not for the better. “You can’t hit a guy anymore back. There’s no fear that, ‘Oh if I hit this guy, then our guy is going to get hit.’ That’s not the game anymore,” he explained. “Pitchers don’t have to hit anymore, so they don’t have to stand in the box.” Without the risk of retaliation, pitchers seemed to have little motivation to control their fastballs.

Merrifield, a player representative on Major League Baseball’s competition committee, had already planned a “long conversation” with fellow members about the trend. To him, this wasn’t just a Braves problem - it was a league-wide issue, one that had worsened as teams prioritized speed over control. “Teams are bringing pitchers up that don’t know where the hell the ball is going,” Merrifield said, shaking his head. “They throw 100 miles an hour, so they’re like, ‘Alright, we’ll see if he can get the guys out. Just set up down the middle and throw it as hard as you can.’ And it’s bullshit.”

Most hit-by-pitch MLB seasons

The injuries weren’t isolated events. Merrifield rattled off names of players who had suffered from wild inside pitches recently. “I watched Taylor Ward get hit in the face last year and have to get reconstructive surgery,” he said. “Justin Turner got hit in the face last year. Mookie Betts broke a bone in his hand this year.”

For Merrifield, the growing list of injuries wasn’t just unfortunate; it was a sign of a dangerous trend. “It’s happening at an exponential rate,” he said. “It has to be fixed, or God forbid, something terrible is going to happen.”

Braves manager Brian Snitker was more optimistic, but Merrifield wasn’t convinced the issue would blow over as easily. To him, this was about more than one errant fastball; it was about the future of the game and the safety of the players who risk their careers every time they step into the batter’s box.

“It’s frankly pathetic some of the pitchers we’re running out there,” Merrifield said, still seething as he walked off the field. “And it’s got to be fixed.”