The face of an ever-changing game has been second basemen. The position could be transformed by MLB’s new infield shift limitations.

If we ever stop calling second base the keystone — or simply want to add a new moniker for the fielding position between first base and shortstop — perhaps we should consider the bellwether. Owing to the wide funnel that leads players to the position, second base has become a beacon we can follow as forces in the game pull teams’ priorities this way and that.

Thanks to the dawn of MLB’s infield shift limitations. The most congested, crowded, and studied area of the field will be (mostly) rearranged by rule to restore its natural alignment. These changes will bring new responsibilities to the players in the position.

While most of the attention on the new shift limitations has understandably gone toward understanding how hitters might benefit — how many more hits left-handed sluggers might accumulate under the new rules — there will also be career-altering intrigue in the field. Who is fit to walk the tightrope of second base without the shift’s forgiving net? Who will find the balance between the position’s recent offensive prowess and its traditional defensive bent?

Understanding the evolution of the idea that a second baseman was created is key to understanding the divergent paths possible.

The location of limitations

You might be a visual archetype, a second baseman who is contact-hitting and quick. There’s good reason for that. Joe Morgan and Jose Altuve are the OPS+’s best second basemen since integration. They are both under 5 feet 9. A bevy of less accomplished major-league fixtures — from the early years of the game through now — also fit that mental mold, in one way or another, without the extreme stature or excellence. It’s not because being short is advantageous, though. That’s just one outcropping of second base’s status as the wild card, the fallback plan, the limbo of the defensive spectrum.

Maybe you also have a scouting archetype of the second baseman: “Not enough arm for shortstop.” There’s good reason for that, too. Athletes with the hands and agility fit for demanding middle-infield duties have for eons shuffled over to second base if they can’t quite make that longer throw to first. Or if their bat doesn’t quite cut it at third base. They may be abused by a better player.

Perhaps you are a blurred archetype of what the second baseman was like in the past. In the 15 years since Chase Utley and Dustin Pedroia were there, you have seen stars less easily defined float in and around the spot where they once stood every morning. Ian Kinsler, Robinson Cano, and Altuve are now populated with superutility athletes for whom second base isn’t exactly home but close enough to it.

Ben Zobrist was the icon for keystone-centric versatility wizards and that model eventually became ubiquitous. Jeff McNeil, DJ LeMahieu, Ketel Marte Others have since assumed this position without being novelty.

Second base can be described as the position of limitations. But at its best, it’s the position where players of many shapes and sizes free themselves from their limitations.

Toss softly, and bring a long stick

Pesky Slap Hitter central to the Haven For Diverse Hitters was not an evolution of second base. The proliferation of the infield shift, plus more nuanced advances in defensive positioning, helped expand the range of potential second basemen — in more ways than one.

Second basemen with slower feet could play second base more effectively and with a more dramatic positioning. This resulted in more useful hitters being able to play left field, first base and designated hitter.

As teams became more confident in their shifts, in the little cards in every player’s back pocket, they started selecting more and more second basemen for their bats rather than their gloves. It’s not that the prototypical second basemen suddenly got replaced by sluggers, but the toss-up roster spot that might have gone to a middle-infield defensive specialist started going instead to a bat-first option who could manage at second (Wilmer Flores, Marwin Gonzalez, Brandon Drury).

This is why some players who could have been pushed onto a different path because they were too tall or thin, ended up making second-class careers. (Daniel Murphy Matt Carpenter). Others carved out mid-career roles that involved significant and sometimes jarring playing time at the keystone; Mike Moustakas turned Milwaukee’s experiment into a lucrative deal with the Reds. The 2018 NLCS was Game 6, and this might have been the peak of this shift. when the Dodgers and Brewers The beefy duo Max Muncy & Travis Shaw were formed at the second.

In the interim, young players with great bats and questionable fielding abilities were promoted to full-time positions as utility or starting second basemen. Brandon Lowe And Luis Arraez They are among them. Arraez, who is Minnesota Twins reportedly traded to the Miami Marlins On Friday, he could be switching teams as his limited fielding skills no longer allow him to play on the Twins’ team. Carlos Correa, Jorge Polanco Prospect Royce Lewis All jockeying for play time or locked in.

The result, combined with MLB’s growing preference for defensive flexibility, is an upward trend of better-than-average hitters who play at least some second base.

As a whole, second basemen (and shortstops and catchers and center fielders) historically don’t hit as well as the rest of the lineup because their hitting ability is a smaller chunk of the rationale behind their roster spots. This is the basis of the WAR positional adjustment and an intuitive truth that you can find by looking at MLB draft results, or recalling the names of the most talented Little League players.

However, the gap between second basemen compared to the average MLB hitter has been closing in recent years.

In concert with new hitting philosophies and changes in the baseball that created massive home run surges — and made sluggers of even unspectacular, diminutive second basemen between 2015 and 2021 — the new shape of personnel at the position pulled second base close to and occasionally over the bar of the average MLB hitter, an astounding source of offense and value for teams that struck the right balance.

Are shift limitations a way to reverse this trend?

The balance between the two is going to become more difficult. MLB’s infield shift limitations taking effect in 2023 outlaw or severely compromise the main ways teams alleviated defensive pressure on second basemen. There’s a lot of nuance in positioning beyond this, but broadly speaking, it’s easier to field at second if you a) stand farther back, on the outfield grass and b) shade heavily to one side while relying on another fielder, typically the shortstop, to cover the rest.

Infielders must start every pitch on the dirt, and the extreme shift that brought shortstop across to second is now prohibited. Second basemen will undoubtedly have more ground.

Teams that have second basemen they’ve covered defensively will now be faced with the dilemma of having to shuffle their roster or finding the best way for them to cover under the new rules. Take the Rays and Lowe. They have a large pool of middle infielders who are far better defenders than Lowe but could really benefit from the thump in Lowe’s bat And This is the first year that a DH will be in the lineup, after being 25th in MLB in slugging. The Dodgers could use their roster to keep Muncy from moving up to second.

It would appear that second basemen are about to fall. But the ultimate fate of the trendlines isn’t destiny. It’s a product of choices.

These same thought processes are what turned Altuve into 5-foot-8 Ozzie Albies A lot of the action was moved off the ground by the introduction of 30-homer mampers. In the last four seasons, the league’s ground-ball rate was less than 43%. This is a decrease from 45.1% ten years ago. That might not sound like a lot, but it amounts to roughly 2,734 grounders being lifted into the air — or about 91 balls per team per season that are more likely to fall to the outfielders.

Given the relative reliability of projecting offensive performance and the possibility that they can finagle new methods of cracking the defensive code, there’s a chance teams roll with these hitters. There’s also a chance they try to adapt and realize they have to go back to more agile fielders, and thus, the position experiences a delayed-reaction offensive downturn.

No matter what happens, the status of the second basemen will tell us something about where the game is heading. That, though, is one thing that won’t be new.

Follow Zach Crizer, Yahoo Sports’ Twitter Account @zcrizer.