Ghost runner made permanent
Starting extra innings with a runner on second base during the regular season was made a permanent rules change by Major League Baseball on Monday after three seasons of use during the coronavirus pandemic. Known by some as the “Ghost Runner” and by others as the “Manfred Man” after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, the rule was unanimously adopted by the sport’s 11-person competition committee. Use of position players as pitchers also was tightened by the committee. They will be limited to extra innings, when a player’s team is losing by eight or more runs or is winning by 10 or more runs in the ninth inning. Last year, a position player could pitch only in extra innings or if his team was losing or winning by six or more runs. The joint competition committee, established in the lockout settlement last March, includes six management officials, four union representatives and one umpire. There were 216 extra-inning games last year, down from 233 in 2021 and 78 during the shortened 2020 season. The longest last year was Cleveland’s 7-6, 15-inning win over Minnesota in the second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 17. That was one inning shy of the longest in the three seasons of the rule, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 16-inning win at San Diego on Aug. 25, 2021. Home teams went 113-103 in extra-inning games last year and are 262-263 in extra innings since the runner on second rule started in 2020, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Home teams were 312-294 in extra-inning games from 2017-19, Elias said.
Darvish contract details set
Yu Darvish will receive $30 million this year in salary and signing bonus as part of a new $108 million, six-year contract with the
San Diego Padres.
The agreement, announced Thursday, replaced the final season of a
$126 million, sixyear contract that was due to pay the 36-year-old right-hander $18 million this season. Darvish geta a $6 million signing bonus, of which $2 million is payable within 30 days’ of the deal’s approval by the commissioner’s office, $2 million this
June 1 and $2 million this Sept 1. He gets salaries of $24 million this year, $15 million in 2024, $20 million in 2025, $15 million in 2026 and $14 million each in 2027 and 2028. Darvish’s 2028 salary would increase by $1 million for each Cy Young Award he wins from 202327. Darvish helped the Padres reach the NL Championship Series last season, which was one of the best in his 11-year big league career. He went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts. He was 2-1 in the postseason. Darvish was traded by the Cubs to the Padres in 2020.