Let baseball players (non pitchers) go out and return during a game: "Free Substitution".

Don't get hung up on the phrase "Free Substitution". Think about making this work.

Because of the late start of spring training in 2022, teams are allowed to have 28 active players through the end of April. The Yankees may carry 15 pitchers and 13 baseball players. FIFTEEN pitchers!

Instead of limiting the number of pitchers, as some suggest, how about this:

Allow players at all the other positions to go back into the game in the same place in the batting order?

I've long favored that. If we have a designated fielder, my idea above could happen automatically except for Shohei Ohtani.

Free Substitution Saturday, September 6, 2008

Free substitution means that a player may leave the game and return later. Pretty basic. Football and basketball have it. Why not baseball? Just because they didn't think of it a million years ago? Or in 1950 when there were the last big modifications of the rules?

The only big rule change since then is the designated hitter, which is a lousy rule but not for the reasons usually presented. See my idea about designated fielders in my original radical baseball post.

To make this work in baseball simply maintain the batting order. If Derek Jeter starts the game batting second he may only bat in that position.

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Cool, huh?