Life doesn’t work like that. You’re born without a left arm and guess what, professional basketball player isn’t for you. You have to live in Minnesota? OK. But don’t expect others to change their criteria because of that.
Of course this is highly unlikely because it handicaps skills related directly to baseball, but it's not completely impossible for a pitcher or DH. The Minnesota example is not comparable, because the ability to do good research is not inherently impacted by staying at one institution, and the grant evaluation is directly penalizing the staying part rather than indirectly.
I can't speak to whether the university or this guy's research were actually any good, but it hurts science to have such rigid proxy judgements.