The reasons for not bunting are just as simple. The percentages of the bunt successfully moving the runners along are much lower than people seem to assume. For starters, today’s hitters are not good bunters, and today’s pitchers are hard to bunt against. Also, even if the bunt is successful, the percentages of getting a runner in from third with less than two out are a lot lower than people seem to assume, especially in the age of 3 true outcomes. When you stack up those percentages, the probabilities point to letting hitters swing away in many situations. One of those situations is when the hitter after the player who would be bunting is a high strikeout candidate. You can criticize modern players for not being able to bunt or put the ball in play, but I can’t criticize a manager for making moves that take the players’ skills into account.