The objective is to prioritize starting pitching, not to leave a struggling starter in to reach the innings threshold while his ERA skyrockets or at the risk of injury.
Some instances when pitchers would be allowed to leave early might include: He throws 100 pitches, He gives up four or more earned runs, He gets injured.
For many years, MLB did very little tinkering with the rules but it's a new day and everything is now fair play to address.
The perfect example of this was the pitch clock. This is where the league needed to step in.
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