Since 1955 (the first year Major League Baseball started recording the stat), no team has gone a full season without issuing an intentional walk.
With zero free passes issued in 2019 thus far, the Houston Astros are hoping to be the first.
It’s an intentional decision by the team to forego issuing intentional walks as the feeling within the Astros organization is that, with home runs expected to hit an all-time high in 2019, putting extra batters on base is an easy way to surrender more runs.
Also, though the intentional walk is theoretically a means of setting up a double-play, Houston feels the decreased levels of ground balls which are being hit in MLB these days make issuing intentional walks an even worse strategy.
Rejecting the intentional walk is not a new theme in Houston as the team only handed out four free passes in 2018, the fewest number of intentional walks in a season on record.
“The IBB has been overused in the past,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “I’m glad that [Houston manager] A.J. [Hinch] is on the leading edge of not having to resort to that.”
Other former members of the Astros organization have taken similar approaches with their new teams. In Boston, Red Sox manager Alex Cora, a former bench coach in Houston, has only had his staff issue eight intentional walks. In Baltimore, former Houston executive Mike Elias’ Orioles have handed out just five free passes.
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