Rosenthal: Numbers alone should not dictate baseball games. Trust and feel

Bring back feel.

There, I said it, and I don’t care how much disdain I might incur from those who enjoy numbers dictating how baseball games are played.

My issue is not with analytics. Analytics inform us, enlighten us, broaden our understanding of the sport. As the A’s Brent Rooker pointed out Wednesday, in a well-stated thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, analytics also help players become better versions of themselves. Uh, that is a good thing.

No, my issue is with faulty decision-making based on analytics, as most recently demonstrated by the predetermined choice of Blue Jays management to pull right-hander José Berríos after he allowed a leadoff walk in the fourth inning of Game 2 of their wild-card series against the Twins.

Jays management — and that’s the proper way to phrase it, because heaven forbid manager John Schneider be permitted to act on his own — wanted lefty Yusei Kikuchi against a pocket of left-handed hitters. Never mind that the Jays signed Berríos to a $131 million extension less than two years ago, or that he had struck out five in three scoreless innings. Who he is, and more importantly, how he was pitching, did not seem to matter.

The decision backfired, leading to the Twins’ only runs in their 2-0 victory, but the result is almost beside the point. In a sport full of random outcomes, even well-conceived decisions can backfire. Most everyone understands that aspect of baseball considers it part of the game. The scrutiny in the postseason is greater, and that’s all part of it, too.

The decision also was not the reason the Jays lost, seeing as how they reverted to their paper-tiger form and failed to score. But the comments by Jays players afterward were revealing. Vladmir Guerrero Jr. said the team “needs to make better decisions on everything.” Cavan Biggio said, “It was confusing just because we hadn’t done that all year.” Bo Bichette said, “I think (Berríos) deserves some trust in the biggest moments.”

Trust. It cannot be measured. And when something cannot be measured in today’s game, too often it is dismissed. I don’t want to dwell on the Jays, who merely provided the latest glaring example of overthinking. Their move was not the first of its kind in the postseason. (Blake Snell, 2020 World Series, anyone?) It surely will not be the last of these playoffs. Bloodless, dispassionate decision-making is the goal for many in the sport, no matter the effect on the actual people involved.

Well, fans have just about had it:

• The Giants just fired Gabe Kapler, as process-oriented a manager as there was in the game. Yet many of their fans remain disgruntled, in part because president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi put together a matchup-based roster that underscores the team’s lack of trust in its players.

• Many Yankees fans, too, are angry, in part because of analytically driven decision-making by general manager Brian Cashman that sometimes defies common…