COMMISSIONER ENCOURAGED BY PACE OF PLAY
Baseball Commissioner TORONTO Rob Manfred said Tuesday that he’s encouraged by pace-of-play changes that have limited mound visits and reduced the time between innings at major league games this season.
Speaking in Toronto before the Blue Jays hosted the Boston Red Sox, Manfred said the new rules have sped up games without any disruption.
“Whenever you change a rule in baseball, people predict all sorts of dire outcomes, and we have avoided even the smallest of incidents related either to the mound visit rule or the shorter inning breaks,” Manfred said. “Secondly, I’m positive about them because they’ve been effective. We are way down in terms of mound visits, I think down about 50 percent, and our inning breaks are significantly shorter. I take both of those as positives in an ongoing effort to make sure that we’re producing an entertainment product with as little dead time as possible.”
Manfred called himself “a proponent” of the pitch clocks currently in use in the minor leagues, but he said he was “not in a position where I’m going to say for certain whether or not we’re going to have pitch clocks at the big league level.”
The commissioner also spoke about the number of games postponed by poor weather so far. Tuesday’s game in Baltimore between the Rays and Orioles was the 27th to be postponed this season, the most related to weather through April since the commissioner’s office started keeping those records in 1986.
“This has really been a unique April for us,” Manfred said. “We’ve set a record for the number of games that have been canceled and, probably more troublingly, we’ve played a lot of games in really tough weather. I think we have 12 cities that have been more than 10 degrees below their average temperature for the month of April.”
Yankees-Nats make trade.
The Yankees acquired pitcher A.J. Cole from the Nationals, hoping the once-promising righty can find his rhythm in a new place.
The Yankees got Cole for $75,000, a move they announced Monday night following a 14-1 win over Minnesota.
The 26-year-old Cole was cut by the Nationals on Friday. He was 1-1 with a 13.06 ERA in four games.
Royals get Perez, Gordon back.
MO.» The Royals KANSAS CITY, activated all-star catcher Salvador Perez and outfielder Alex Gordon from the disabled list and put them in the lineup against the Brewers.
Perez has been out all season after straining a ligament in his left knee while carrying bags up a flight of stairs in his home. He was behind the plate and batting cleanup against Milwaukee.
Gordon tore the labrum in his left hip on April 9. He was in left field and batting seventh.
The Brewers activated catcher Manny Pina from the DL and put him into the starting lineup.
Footnotes.
Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant was out of the lineup against the Indians two days after being hit on the head by a pitch. Cubs manager Joe Maddon said the 2016 National League MVP has a cut above his left eye but no concussion after being hit Sunday by Colorado’s German Marquez. … The Padres placed first baseman Eric Hosmer on the family medical leave list. Manager Andy Green says the Padres hope to have him back in the lineup Friday. … The White Sox placed outfielder Avisail Garcia on the 10-day DL because of a strained right hamstring. Garcia was an all-star a year ago but is off to a sluggish start, hitting .233 with one homer and four RBIs in 18 games.