WASHINGTON -David Ortiz can now laugh, sort of, at the shifting culture of baseball. For Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and most every other All-Star hitter, dealing with different defensive alignments is just part of the game.

Tune in Tuesday night and there’s no telling where fans will see fielders at Nationals Park. Especially in what’s become merely an exhibition — why not try a five-man outfield?

Count Joey Votto among the boppers who’d love to do away with infielders clustered on the grass.

“From someone who’s really been dinged by the shift, I would welcome it,” the Cincinnati first baseman said Monday. “Once they started shifting more without question, I adjusted my approach and you have to or else you get burned by it because .290 turns into .250 turns into .220 like nothing.”

But the career .312 hitter can see why Major League Baseball might want to avoid delving into rules to define defensive positions.

“I like the idea of a dynamic ballplayer. It’s really hard to shift against a really fast left-handed hitter for a multitude of reasons,” he said. “Removing the shift may lend itself to the left-handed pull hitter that hits flyballs, groundballs and strikes out a ton. I’m not sure if Major League Baseball is excited about that.”

To Ortiz, these overloaded infields are reshaping the sport. Not in a good way, either.

“It seems crazy, it seems like it’s taking some fun part of the game away,” the retired Red Sox slugger said Sunday before managing the Futures Game.

“It seems like there are 20 guys playing defense against you,” Big Papi said, playfully estimating shifts took “like 500 hits away from me.”

There’s been talk that baseball, concerned that less action in the field could translate to fewer fans in the stands, might consider a rule regarding shifts.

Perhaps it would mean only two infielders on each side of the diamond. Or possibly they’d all be required to stay on the dirt.

“Maybe something where you can only shift a couple guys each inning,” Arenado offered.

Of course, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Luis Severino and other aces might see it a bit differently.

“I am extremely pro-shift, especially against lefties because I pound lefties in and then change-ups away,” Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling said. “I know there are pitchers that don’t like it as much. When you think about the shift it’s easier to remember the ones that hurt you than the 10 that helped you.”

As for the debate about shifts damaging the game, “certainly I understand it,” he said.

“We were just talking about this the other day and we looked up the research a little bit. It’s led to way less singles, but more walks and more doubles,” he said.

No manager employs more shifts than AL skipper A.J. Hinch of Houston, so look for second baseman Jose Altuve and shortstop Manny Machado to be moving around when Paul Goldschmidt, Matt Kemp and the other NL stars come to bat.

“The shift has transformed the game,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “We did it a lot last year and won the World Series, so I guess it works.”

Despite all the top talent at the plate, All-Star Games rarely turn into run-fests. They’re often limited by the strong stable of pitchers each team brings, boosted by dominant relievers such as Craig Kimbrel, Josh Hader and Kenley Jansen ramped up to throw one inning apiece.

The AL won last year 2-1 at Miami on Robinson Cano’s homer in the 10th inning. Not since 2007, in fact, have both teams scored more than three runs in a game.

That’s the trend across baseball these days. Going into the break, there have been more strikeouts than hits in the majors. The overall batting average is .247 at the break, and it could dip to the lowest figure in nearly a half-century.

“I think offenses are down because of the shift. I see a lot of guys hit balls hard up the middle that are usually hits that are outs,” Trout said.

The decrease on the scoreboard has increased calls for more radical changes — outlawing shifts, lowering the mound, forcing relievers to face more than one batter.

“This is a game of adjustments. Everybody is constantly making adjustments to you,” Atlanta outfielder Nick Markakis said. “You’re going to want to cry about it and not have the shift any more? I think it’s silly.”

No one has suggested cutting the bases to 88 feet or stretching the mound-to-plate distance beyond 60 feet, 6 inches.

Meanwhile, home runs continue to rise at a record rate. Strikeouts, too.

Harper, a six-time All-Star at 25, is caught in the vortex. Set to play in the showcase at his home ballpark, he’s batting only .214 with 102 strikeouts, along with 23 homers.

How can a batter beat the shift?

“You can’t,” Harper said. “If you hit a ball in the hole, then you’re out. If you hit a ball up the middle, you’re out.”

“If I have a kid, I’m not going to tell him to stay through the middle anymore because if you hit a ball up the middle, you’re out,” he said. “I guess guys could bunt down the first base line or third base line if they shift you the other way. But you don’t get paid to bunt. If you hit it over all of them, that’s how you beat it.”

All-Star lineups

By the time Bryce Harper gets to the plate at the All-Star Game, Max Scherzer could already be out of the game.

Harper is batting sixth in his fifth All-Star start, the lowest he has been in the National League lineup since the No. 9 spot in 2013. Scherzer getting the start against Boston’s Chris Sale is no surprise as the hometown ace, but Harper faces a much different dynamic knowing this could be the final time he’s honored on a big stage by Nationals fans when he trots out to center field on Tuesday night.

In a contract year that could be his last with Washington, Harper is hitting .214 with a .365 on-base percentage, .468 slugging percentage, 23 home runs and 54 RBIs. That batting average is 60 points lower than the next-closest NL All-Star hitter, while his HR total is one shy of the league lead.

“I look up there and see my average as well, and I look up there and go, ‘Aw man, well that sucks,”’ Harper said Monday, hours before taking part in the Home Run Derby. “But I look over a little bit to the right side of that and see 23 homers and (54) RBIs and 80 walks and runs scored and stuff like that. I don’t know.

“Should I be hitting .300 or .280? Yeah, absolutely. But I guess I am where I’m at, and hopefully the only way I can go is up.”

Harper reiterated it’s no secret he’s in the final year of his contract and brushed aside a question about trimming his beard last month when the New York Yankees came to town. But it’s a shadow hanging over the first All-Star festivities in Washington since 1969.

“Everybody knew that at the beginning of the year this could be possibly my last year in D.C.,” Harper said. “There’s no elephant in the room. Everybody knows that that’s a possibility. But I’m not really focused on that. I’m focused on what I can do to help the team win on a daily basis.”

Scherzer was a no-brainer choice given his 12 victories, 2.41 ERA, NL-best 182 strikeouts and the game being in Washington. NL manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers complimented New York Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom, who will get the ball second, but said the setting was the tiebreaker.

“It’s his city. It’s his ballpark,” Roberts said. “I’ve always tried to make things bigger than me and the club. And I think that Max, for the game of baseball, for our country, he’s the right guy to take the baseball.”

Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale opens for the American League as he and Scherzer join 13 other pitchers who have started three All-Star Games. Sale is starting for the third consecutive time and is the third player to do that, following Lefty Gomez and Robin Roberts.

Each pitcher made his first All-Star start with a different team — Sale for the White Sox and Scherzer for the Tigers — and has now gotten the nod in back-to-back years. It’s the first time the same set of pitchers started the game two years in a row since 1939 and 1940; Paul Derringer and Red Ruffing.

When asked what each admired about the other, Scherzer said: “I think we said this last year.”

Sale’s Boston teammate Mookie Betts leads off for the AL, followed by the Astros’ Jose Altuve, Angels’ Mike Trout, Red Sox’s J.D. Martinez, Indians’ Jose Ramirez, Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Orioles’ Manny Machado , White Sox’s Jose Abreu and Royals’ Salvador Perez.

Cubs second baseman Javier Baez leads off for the NL, followed by the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado, Diamondbacks’ Paul Goldschmidt, Braves’ Freddie Freeman, Dodgers’ Matt Kemp, Harper, Braves’ Nick Markakis, Giants’ Brandon Crawford and Cubs’ Willson Contreras.

Harper hit third, second and third in his past three All-Star Games and has bounced around the Nationals’ lineup during his rough season that’s attracting attention around baseball. Retired outfielder Torii Hunter, who was in town to manage in the Futures Game , believes Harper must adjust his mindset.

“I don’t know if his mind (is) into just hit home runs and ‘chicks dig the long ball’ type deal, but I definitely think this guy could hit .330,” Hunter said. “If you’re a competitor, you want no weaknesses. So if Bryce Harper sees that he’s hitting .214, his job is like, ‘OK, what am I doing mentally? What am I thinking or what am I feeling?’ Figure out what’s going on so you can become a complete player.”