It’s almost too trite to say baseball is never short on topics to debate. 

Whether it’s the new torpedo bats popularized by the Yankees or the sweeping rules changes introduced in 2023, there has been a litany of fresh topics for talking heads to bandy about in the past couple of years alone. 

But in a game as old and with as many traditions as baseball, some topics just never really go away and are part of the sport’s lexicon forever. 

The phrase “lineup protection” was particularly ubiquitous in New York this offseason, especially in the Mets’ and Yankees’ pursuits of Juan Soto.