NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s approach to banning, or even limiting, the use of sticky substances for pitchers is subjective and unscientific, at best. The lack of a controlled and unflappable methodology for ejecting and suspending pitchers who are deemed by umpires to have pitching hands that are too sticky became a talking point again this week after Mets closer Edwin Díaz was ejected on Sunday.
And yet, pitchers who operate under the league’s arbitrary decision-making aren’t as unhappy as one might think.
Multiple pitchers told FOX Sports that, while there are certainly gray areas to the league’s sticky-substance situation, they view the rate at which pitchers are getting ejected from games as a sign that, overall, pitchers are adapting to the rule.
In 2021, MLB announced a new policy that any pitcher caught using foreign substances on baseballs would receive a 10-game suspension. The league responded to an increase in pitcher spin rates — aided by the use of sticky substances like Spider Tack, various types of glues, and sunscreen — that hitters believed led to an unfair advantage. In the three years since that policy was introduced, only eight pitchers have received suspensions. MLB umpires carry out this policy by checking the hands, glove, belt and hat of every pitcher that starts or enters a given game.
Díaz on Sunday at Wrigley Field became the latest pitcher to be ejected for what umpire Vic Carapazza believed was the use of a foreign substance on his pitching hand. Diaz’s hand appeared to be discolored, which former Cy Young winner and ESPN broadcaster David Cone said can happen with the use of rosin. Díaz, for his part, said he used what he always does: rosin, sweat and dirt. The closer on Monday received a 10-game suspension, which he didn’t appeal, making him the second pitcher to be disciplined this season. The Astros’ Ronel Blanco was suspended May 15.
Díaz is eligible to return on July 6 when the Mets play the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
“It definitely wasn’t rosin and sweat,” Carapazza told a reporter on Sunday. “We’ve checked thousands of these. I know what that feeling is. This was very sticky.”
According to league sources, the process of ejecting a pitcher is binary.
If a pitcher’s hand is sticky, he’s at the risk of ejection even if he used a legal substance, such as rosin. MLB says that “when used inappropriately, rosin also may constitute a prohibited foreign substance under the Playing Rules.” Moreover, players are not allowed to intentionally combine rosin with other substances, like sunscreen, to create additional tackiness.
Per league sources, there have been a few instances where umpires felt something tacky but not sticky (they have been trained on the difference), or where the umpire saw discoloration or dirt without any tackiness. If it’s clearly sticky, especially when it’s extremely sticky like Carapazza said of Díaz’s situation on Sunday, the umpire will go ahead and eject the pitcher. If it’s tacky, or not extremely sticky, then the umpire might ask the pitcher to wash his hands.
“They’ve been through a lot of this. They check hands all the time,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of MLB umpires. “They felt it was a little too much. As far as [umpires] sending other players to wash their hands, I think coloring has something to do with it. But not as much as the stickiness [has to do with it]. Vic at the time [of Díaz’s ejection] felt like not only the coloring [was too much], but it was a little too sticky there. That’s why he made the decision. And there’s times where there is coloring, but it’s not as sticky, so that’s when they’ll tell pitchers to go wash their hands.”
Curiously, three of the six pitchers to be ejected for sticky substances since 2023 played for the Mets at the time of their suspensions. Max Scherzer and Drew Smith each received 10-game suspensions last season for violating the prohibitions on foreign substances.
“I don’t really know the specifics of what he was doing that day, but I think it basically caught him by surprise,” Mets reliever Adam Ottavino told the “Foul Territory” podcast regarding Díaz. “He was pretty surprised that he got ejected. He said he hadn’t done anything different than he had been doing. …
“I think there’s some frustration across the league that everything’s [at the] umpire’s discretion in this regard, and it’s kind of hard to know where the line is.”
Mendoza wouldn’t go into the details of whether the Mets will now, following yet another suspension, teach their pitchers a different approach to getting a better grip on the ball. But the first-year skipper was adamant that, from day one of his new post, the Mets as a staff have been specific and direct when addressing players about MLB’s sticky-substances rule.
“Edwin said it was rosin and sweat,” Mendoza said. “The one thing that he said was, it was humid. So he had to go to [the rosin] a lot more than earlier in the year when it was cold. So maybe that had something to do with it. I believe my player, so I’ll stand by him.”
Ultimately, it appeared Mendoza disagreed with MLB’s ruling that Díaz used a foreign substance. So, why didn’t Díaz appeal the suspension?
Multiple pitchers told FOX Sports that they feel like they don’t have a say in the league’s sticky-substance policy, either on the mound when umpires first discover something possibly amiss, or later, during the appeals process. Multiple players and team staff members also reiterated that they’re not clear on what exactly the line is between tacky and sticky, and what exactly is too sticky.
Some pitchers have their own guidelines, like believing that discoloration on the pitching hand from rosin rubbing off on the glove is a personal indication that their hands are too sticky. But the league has not informed those pitchers that discoloration is an automatic ejection. It leaves every pitcher to make their own individual policy for what appears right, or too far.
Despite the gray areas and lasting concerns from pitchers about what could be ruled too sticky, players said the small number of suspensions in the past three years indicate that this isn’t a hill they want to die on. Pitchers believe they’re adapting to the new policy, and umpires aren’t being overtly aggressive in enacting it. They’re not even sure they’d want to bring it up ahead of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Perhaps their stance would change if there is a sudden uptick in sticky-substance suspensions. But, for now, both the league and players seem to think the new policy is working just fine.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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