Weaponizing the Pop-up: A Look at the Growing Trend of Deceptive Defense

Last night, Jazz Chisholm made what, on the surface, looked like an inexcusable baserunning blunder—failing to read a routine pop-up to the infield. The miscue didn’t go unnoticed, prompting a visible outburst from Aaron Boone in the Yankees' dugout, directed at both his first base coach and the player involved. But this isn’t an isolated incident. Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen a troubling pattern: players repeatedly misjudging one of the most basic reads on the basepaths—the infield pop-up. It's time to ask the hard question: why are players struggling with a play that should be second nature at the professional level?

The truth is, defenders have become much more aggressive over the past two seasons when it comes to trading runners. It's not a new tactic in baseball history, but it’s certainly become less taboo—and far more deliberate. Infielders are now actively looking for any edge they can steal, and if that means baiting an aggressive baserunner into a mistake, so be it.

We’ve seen this play out time and time again across the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Take, for example, Manny Machado earlier this year. He manufactured a situation by dropping a pop-up with Elly De La Cruz—arguably the most disruptive baserunner in the league—on first base. The result? He traded Elly for a much slower, less aggressive runner. That’s not an accident. That’s calculated.

Defenders have reached the point where they're not just trying to make the routine play—they're actively testing whether the offense is doing everything right. Unfortunately, pop-ups have become one of those moments where baserunners mentally check out. Too many players treat them as automatic outs, coasting through the play instead of making the right decision under pressure.

Defenses have picked up on this. They've identified a gap in players’ understanding of situational awareness and are exploiting it. Take another example, this time from last season: Will Benson hits a routine pop-up but fails to run down the first base line. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., recognizing Benson’s lapse, casually drops the ball and turns a free out into a tactical double play opportunity. Once again, the defense wasn’t asleep—they were watching for any mental lapse and jumped on it. Even further in this situation have the runner on 1st who needs to understand a whole subset of sitautional awareness which is out of the scope of this article.

Alongside the trend of trading outs, we’re also seeing teams push the limits of players’ situational awareness. Infielders have started weaponizing the infield fly rule—not just to secure the automatic out, but to test whether baserunners are truly locked in. Instead of making a routine catch, fielders are letting the ball drop, baiting runners into revealing whether they understand the situation and are fully engaged with the rules. It’s no longer just about making the play—it’s about exposing mental lapses. Who’s locked in? Who’s coasting? The idea here is that defenders are making players think, and the reads in these situations when the ball hits the ground creates a moment of doubt for the runner if they aren’t completely focused.

What teams have figured out is this: situational awareness isn’t nearly as universal as you’d expect at the big-league level. In these infield fly scenarios, defenses are essentially hunting for easy double plays—not by luck, but by exposing mental shortcuts.

So that brings us back to last night’s play. Postgame, Jazz Chisholm explained his read: he was anticipating the second baseman intentionally dropping the ball to trade him for the much slower Paul Goldschmidt. In his words, “He deked it like he was going to drop it... I saw him watching Goldie the whole time... I’ve done it here many times.” Jazz wasn’t guessing—he was reading the situation and believed he was countering a defensive tactic that has become increasingly common across the league.

Now, let’s be clear—Jazz should’ve made it back to the bag. Most, if not all, of the successful pop-up tradeoffs we’ve seen occur when the ball lands softly on the infield grass and dies, creating a small window for defenders to act. That wasn’t quite the case here. So yes, the safe, fundamental move would’ve been to retreat. That part isn’t really up for debate.

But the easy critique misses something important. What Jazz was doing wasn’t careless—it was calculated. He explained, “I was playing the drop... if he would’ve dropped it, I was already [in position]... by the time it came down, I would’ve got there.” He wasn’t asleep. He was actively reading the defender, anticipating a dropped pop-up, and positioning himself to exploit a potential lapse—“Sometimes you get aggressive, and you get caught,” he said. That’s not a lack of awareness. That’s a player trying to win a chess match at full speed.

Still, that calculated risk didn’t pay off. In the heat of the moment, baserunners must make split-second decisions that balance aggression with caution—and here, Jazz came up short. This was a bad play, plain and simple, because it cost the offense a baserunner in a critical situation. But it was also part of a high-level chess match, and he was willing to take that chance.

That chess match is only accelerating. Defenders bait, runners counter-bait, and the smallest hesitation or misstep can lead to costly outs. For players and coaches, the challenge is clear: develop situational awareness to a level where these split-second decisions become second nature. If teams don’t intentionally teach this kind of awareness—focusing on how to create sharper thinkers on the field—these mental errors will become the new norm.

The game is evolving. Just as players are pushed to be more athletic than ever, they’re now required to think and process the game at a deeper level. This demands a more refined skill set—one that requires coaches to teach, communicate, and reinforce situational baseball like never before.