It seems that hitters have already figured out the best way to beat The Shift. Let the pitcher walk you. The walk penalty isn’t something that’s been publicly discussed when it comes to The Shift. However, it turns out that it’s effectively swallowing all of the benefits that The Shift was supposedly granting. While The Full Shift is good at preventing singles, batters have just found another way to get to first base.
Source: Russell Carleton, Baseball Prospectus
In theory, this is something that pitchers should improve upon with more experience. In reality, it’s another case of “don’t think; it can only hurt the ball club.”