Many have called for the banishment of defensive shifts from Major League Baseball, claiming that it’s ruining the game by limiting offense. Their opposition then tells them to change their approach to hit around it — To prove they can hit to the opposite field or lay down a bunt. While most hitters have refused to change their approach, that’s no longer something the Mets front office will stand by and watch.

The Mets front office is strongly emphasizing bunting and situational hitting this season in an effort to combat shifts, and increase offense overall. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com spoke to many in the Mets organization about this new approach, and asked Farm Director Jared Banner about bunting against shifts in particular.

“Game situations will dictate it,” Banner told DiComo. “I’m not going to say it’s a blanket rule, but we want all our guys to have the ability and feel comfortable. We just want our guys to be versatile, to have the ability, so that they won’t get shifted against as much.”

There have been many times when it seems like an obvious move to get a rally started, but most players have been unwilling or unable to lay down a bunt. When a shift is on against a lefty, often times the entire left side of the infield is wide open. A bunt doesn’t have to be perfect for the hitter to be safe at first by a mile.

One such occasion happened last June, when Dominic Smith came up with a runner on first and nobody out in the 10th inning against the Dodgers. Los Angeles had a full shift on against Smith, and if he had laid down a bunt anywhere in the vicinity of third base, the Mets would have had runners on first and second with nobody out. Instead, he struck out, and the Mets lost in 11 innings.

“That was just never in my game,” Smith said. “I wanted to just hit. And teams never shifted me, either. Last year was the first year they shifted me. I didn’t take advantage of it. I didn’t lay down any bunts. I didn’t really try to go the other way too much. I was so focused on power, hitting home runs.”

Smith has gone through many bunting drills this Spring, but he’s not the only one. Everyone in the organization is going to be expected to at least know how to bunt.

“This winter, the Mets set up bunting stations at their Dominican academy,” DiComo writes. “Minor League staffers have created bunting competitions with rewards for the winners, while Callaway has publicly lauded big leaguers who have bunted or gone the other way in games.”

It makes total sense — If all the infielders are playing on one side of the field, then hit it to the other side. Trying to hit it over the fence will not always work. As Smith said above, he “was so focused on power” and “hitting home runs,” he didn’t exercise any situational hitting. The result? A .210/.259/.406 career slash line in the Major Leagues.

A great example of someone who hits against the shift is Robinson Cano. According to Statcast data, 61.2 percent of Cano’s hits have gone to left and left-center field over the last four years. We’ve not only seen Callaway laud Cano’s situational hitting all Spring, but we’ve seen his situational hitting lead to quite a few hits, as the second baseman is hitting .349/.404/.465.

“I have a philosophy that the way to beat analytics is to go against analytics,” Callaway told DiComo. “If certain teams are going to value analytics to a certain degree, then we’re going to do whatever we can to counteract that.”

This “less is more” philosophy makes sense, but only if used correctly. If under-used, the shifts rule hitters’ lives if they can’t hit home runs. If over-used, it would take more at-bats to score runs with bunts and opposite-field singles. It remains to be seen how extensively the Mets use this philosophy, but there is very little room for error.