The aftermath of Buster Posey's leg and ankle injury following a collision with Scott Cousins has resulted in attempts to prevent such injuries in the future. While a lot of people have discussed rule changes, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane has publicly told his catcher, Kurt Suzuki to avoid big collisions at home plate.
"I said to him, 'I don't want you planting yourself in front of the plate waiting to get creamed. You're an Athletic catcher -- be athletic,' " Beane told ESPN.
"I don't subscribe to the theory you should be a crash-test dummy," Beane said he told Suzuki. "I don't want to lose you for six months."
Bobby Valentine discusses this in the video below and he makes a good point that this isn't exactly a revolutionary thought. However, I do think there is value for Suzuki in having this public comment made by the front office. If Suzuki was told to avoid collisions in private, it's entirely possible he would get some unfair criticism about how he's playing at home. I can't imagine a ton of criticism in light of Posey's injury, but it still might be there.
I don't know how much this will change how Suzuki plays, but it's still a valuable public nod from Beane. As Beane himself said, there are few runs in the history of baseball that are so valuable as to risk a season-ending injury.