No, the Max Muncy-Ildemaro Vargas collision shouldn't prompt MLB to change its rules

Thursday's series finale between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks featured a brutal collision between Max Muncy and Ildemaro Vargas at first base. Muncy sent a bouncer up the line and Vargas snagged it behind the bag, which set up a sprint to the base. Muncy won the battle, but may have lost the war.

Muncy and Vargas were in obvious pain after the impact, and if this was a college football game, at least one of them would've been ejected for targeting. Both players were removed from the game, but spoke to the media afterwards and it appears as though neither one suffered any serious injury.

So, all's well that ends well, right? If only it were that simple. The collision has prompted discourse online about the use of the double base at first — something that's been talked about but never implemented. Quite frankly, this is conversation that should be shut down immediately.

While it's true that we now live in a overly safety-conscience society where everything from pool noodles to batteries have a warning label attached, the pursuit of safety-at-all-costs has been grossly overemphasized.

Baseball is not football or hockey, but it can be a contact sport at times. We've all seen players flip over dugout railings, slam into outfield walls, and even take a 100-mph comebacker off their body. These types of incidents happen, and you can't legislate your way out of it.

MLB already made the bases bigger back in 2023. And though many fans assumed at the time that the goal was to decrease the distance between the bases, which would in turn entice more teams to steal bags, the primary goal was to give players more room and avoid collisions like we saw on Thursday night between the Dodgers and D-backs.

Dodgers-Diamondbacks collision could've been avoided

Which brings us to the bigger point. This entire situation could've been avoided if one player — D-backs pitcher Ryne Nelson — would've paid attention during spring training and covered first base once the ball left Muncy's bat.

Pitcher fielding practice, or PFP as it's known among the players, teaches pitchers to leave the mound, cover first base, and await the throw any time a ball is hit to the right side of the infield. You can watch the replay as many times as you, and you'll see that Nelson doesn't even move toward first base until Vargas has the ball in his glove.

Muncy's already well out of the batter's box and is hunting that infield single. Vargas, without his pitcher covering the bag, is left with only one option. And as he tries to make the play himself, Muncy popped him with the Madden hit stick as both players came crashing to the turf.

Anytime an incident like this happens, fans of the opposing teams try to assign blame to one player or the other. But this issue doesn't happen if the pitcher does his job, and is yet another reason why this lone incident shouldn't prompt MLB to look at changing the rules yet again.

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