For some, the intentional walk is baseball’s ultimate white flag. They see it as a moment when a team just gives up. For others, it’s a tactic that Managers use to avoid scary hitters. We all saw it for years with Barry Bonds, when Managers would rather walk him than risk pitching to him 249 times between 2002 to 2004. We sometimes see it with Aaron Judge, too. But Shohei Ohtani just took this to a new level, prompting everyone to ask: Should this rule even be allowed? One top MLB insider has a clear answer.

So, should MLB step in and change the rules? Host Rich Eisen asked this question to ESPN’s Buster Olney. Eisen noted fans stay up late to see stars like Ohtani hit and asked Olney what he thought about limiting the walks. Olney told Eisen, “You can’t do anything about it. Because in the end, even if you made that rule, then they[pitchers] would throw four wide ones and he would walk to first base.”

He continued, “I mean, we always have those situations where the manager or the pitching coach goes out to the mound and says, ‘Don’t let the guy beat you.’ So you could take away the intentional walk, uh, and alter that rule, but in the end, they’re not going to pitch to him if they don’t want to. I guess that’s true. That would just be like an old old fashioned Don’t give him anything to hit.” So, for Olney, it is a complete non-starter. But before rejecting the whole idea, what started this whole conversation?

It all started after Game 3 of the World Series, an 18-inning marathon where the Dodgers won 6-5 on a Freddie Freeman walk-off homer at the end. But the biggest story of the night was Ohtani, who went a perfect 4-for-4 in his first four at-bats, smashing two home runs and two doubles.

Rule: The intentional walk rule lets a manager award a batter first base without pitching to him. Instead of throwing four balls, the manager signals to the umpire, and the batter automatically advances. It’s used to bypass strong hitters or create a better defensive setup.

After seeing his second homer that tied the game in the seventh inning, Toronto’s manager John Schneider decided to take the bat out of Ohtani’s hands and intentionally walked him four straight times in the 9th, 11th, 13th, and 15th innings. He also got a fifth walk later to reach base nine times and became the first player in World Series history to do that, and joined Frank Isbell as the only players to get four extra-base hits in Fall Classics.

And did the Blue Jays walk him in Game 4 as well?

No. Toronto pitched to Ohtani in Game 4. The “Unicorn” finally cooled off and went 0-for-3 at the plate with struck out two times, which ended his 11 on-base streak. He did draw one regular walk, though.

And on the mound, he pitched six solid innings, giving up four earned runs— allowing two runs in the third inning due to a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. two-run go-ahead homer and two runs because he left the mound with 2 bases loaded that the next pitcher, Anthony Banda, couldn’t clear— on six hits and striking out 6.

And though Olney shot down a new rule, Ohtani has changed the rulebook before. His unique two-way ability literally forced MLB to adopt the “Ohtani Rule” back in 2022, which allows a player to remain in the game as a DH after his starting pitching role ends. Before this, the team would lose its DH.

And this season, when the Dodgers’ bullpen has struggled down the stretch, fans even wondered if he could be a reliever or closer when the team needed. In those cases, the situation could force him to play the outfield only to stay in the game. But the Manager rejected that speculations and said he is already grateful for what Ohtani is doing on the mound.