AROUND THE HORN

MLB:

Major League Baseball is standardizing procedures for rubbing baseballs and their removal from humidors in an effort to establish more consistency amid complaints about slickness that followed the crackdown on sticky substances. MLB has been working on standards over the course of the season in response to feedback from players and sent a memorandum outlining the changes on Tuesday to general managers, assistant GMs and clubhouse managers. Titled “Updates to Baseball Storage & Handling,” a copy of the memo was obtained by The AP. Scrutiny of baseball preparation — a minimum 13 dozen are readied for each game — has increased in recent years. Use of a humidor, began by the Rockies in 2002, expanded to Diamondbacks in 2019, three additional teams in 2020, then a total of 10 last year and all 30 this season. MLB is mandating a ball be stored in a humidor for at least 14 days before game use, and ball storage must be recorded by the home team’s gameday compliance monitor and then certified in a signed form by the clubhouse manager. The memo followed review of video of each team’s rubbing procedures. MLB is instructing that “each club staff member involved in the process should apply mud in a uniform manner ensuring the same mud-to-water ratio is applied to each ball. Rubbing mud should be applied to each baseball for at least 30 seconds, ensuring that mud is rubbed thoroughly and consistently into the entire leather surface of the ball.” After rubbing, balls are to be put back in Rawlings boxes, with dividers between each, and returned to the humidor until the home team’s gameday compliance monitors gets them for game use. In an effort to reduce time in ball bags, balls are to be taken from the humidor 15-30 minutes before the scheduled start, and then no more than 96 balls at a time. When needed, up to 96 more balls may be taken from the humidor, and they shouldn’t be mixed in bags with balls from the earlier bunch. A bag must be cleaned with a damp cloth and then a dry cloth before it is used “to make sure there is no excess residue, dust or moisture.

Cardinals: 1B Paul Goldschmidt was out of the lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Brewers due to what manager Oliver Marmol described as back tightness. “He’ll experience it from time to time,” Marmol said. “Usually he takes a day, it loosens up, he’ll get treatment and be back at it. That’s our hope.” The Cardinals had made a late switch in their lineup Monday, switching Goldschmidt from first to DH and having Juan Yepez play first instead. Marmol said they made the move to try to keep the six-time All-Star off his feet as much as possible. “He tried to play through it yesterday,” Marmol said. Goldschmidt, 34, who was named the NL player of the week Tuesday, leads the NL in batting average (.339), on-base percentage (.417) and OPS (1.031). He ranks second in the NL in slugging percentage (.614).

Mets: Manager Buck Showalter said All-Star INF/OF Jeff McNeil is day to day after leaving Monday’s victory against the Marlins with tightness in his right hamstring. Showalter characterized the results of McNeil’s MRI as “good news” but didnot specify what the test revealed.