Yankees: Jeff Nelson Tweets Concern About Pitchers Cheating With Wet Rag Rule

Former New York Yankees setup man Jeff Nelson doesn’t think the wet rag rule will go over well.

It’s fair to trust concerns from a pitcher who played in the American League during the steroid era, right? That’s when cheating was at its height in Major League Baseball, and now with a 60-game season on the horizon that will be littered with rule changes, perhaps any red flags should be taken seriously after what we saw the Houston Astros do for about three years.

Former New York Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson — yes, he’s on Twitter — took to social media to weigh in on the “wet rag” rule for the upcoming campaign, which is being put in place to deter pitchers from putting their fingers in their mouth. That practice, which helps get better grip on the ball, is not conducive for halting the spread of COVID-19.

Of the many coronavirus-related rule changes, Nelson isn’t optimistic about this one from a cheating perspective.

He’s got a point. Unless the umpires are checking the rags before the start of each inning, there’s no telling what pitchers will be putting on those things. Pine tar? A mixture of sunscreen and rosin? Whatever they need to get a better grip?! We’ve seen pitchers blatantly put it on their hats, hands, etc., so a rag in their pocket is essentially a free pass to cheat.

Perhaps Nelson speaking out on this will put MLB on alert and indeed have the umpires conduct inspections before the start of every inning. It’d be the smart thing to do, because, really, we can’t be giving the Astros another clear path to get away with breaking the rules. Remember the were accused of doctoring baseballs?

Between the wet rag and no-spitting rule, we’re really not sure how we’re going to get through the 2020 season without there being countless laughs and senseless infractions. And when we see our first instance of cheating with the rag, we can thank Nelson for warning us.