Big changes on MLB’s mind
Quickening game, boosting offense part of mission
Major League Baseball, HOUSTON alarmed by the game’s lack of action this season, is considering making the most radical changes in more than a century.
Commissioner Rob Manfred says baseball is contemplating everything from altering the strike zone to limiting the number of pitching changes in a game, to curtailing the number of shifts, to even installing 20-second time clocks for pitchers.
If these changes are implemented, it would lead to perhaps the most radical rule changes since 1889, when baseball reduced the number of balls to constitute a walk to four. Certainly, it would have more impact than the American League instituting the designated hitter in 1973.
Anything and everything will be under review, Manfred said, in hopes of breathing life into offenses and providing more action while quickening pace of games.
All changes must be negotiated with the MLB Players Association. MLB and the MLBPA are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement; the current one expires Dec. 1.
It could start with MLB’s first time clock, requiring pitchers to throw the ball within 20 seconds.
“The more we can have on the field, constant reminders so it’s in front of people’s minds, the better off we are in terms of continuing to move the game along,” Manfred said. “And I think the clock is probably the quintessential example of the reminder that keeps pace in people’s minds.”
The owners spent more time studying how the game has changed over the last 50 years, and ways to perhaps liven it up, than any other topic during their quarterly meetings. Yes, they talked about the labor negotiations, and optimism remains high that a deal will be reached by Dec. 1 without a work stoppage.
Yet the hottest topic was whether radical moves are neces- sary, even if it means changing the way relief pitchers can be used.
“You could make an argument that more relievers have lengthened the game,” Manfred said. “More pitching changes has slowed down the pace of the game, and the unbelievable effectiveness of some of those relief pitchers has robbed some of the action from the game.”
So, yes, everything and everything is under consideration, making sure baseball keeps up with the times and attracts a younger audience while balancing its proud tradition.
“Sometimes baseball fans think about what should happen with the game with sort of an artificial construct,” Manfred said. “That the choice is between preserving the game as it came down originally from the mountain and making some changes.”
Statistics have shown that there were 2,400 infield shifts employed by teams five years ago, Manfred said, and now baseball is on pace for 28,000 shifts, killing batting averages for everyone not named Jose Altuve.
“I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing,” Manfred said, “but it has ramifications for what people see when they buy that ticket to go to the ballpark.”
Certainly, the pitching numbers are dizzying. There was an average of 27 pitchers employed by clubs last season, compared with 17 in 1988. There is now an average of 7.77 pitchers used in nine-inning games, throwing 288.7 pitches, with a record 3.87 per plate appearance.
Meanwhile, major leaguers are on pace to produce the secondmost home runs in history, 2.31 per game, but also strike out more times, 15.57, than at any other time in baseball. Add it up, and the number of balls put in play is at a historic low.
There will be no rash decisions, Manfred says. This will be a multiyear project. Ideas will be discussed with the players union and TV rightsholders, with continuing dialogue in owners meetings.
“We’re not at the point of recommendations, decisions, as to what is or isn’t possible,” he said.
If we’re going to see any instant change, Manfred acknowledged, it will be altering the strike zone. Shrinking the strike zone is the easiest solution to enhancing offense without altering the height of the mound.
No matter what eventually transpires or how long it takes, it’s a shrewd move by Manfred and his staff to be addressing baseball’s flaws. Baseball might have its best group of young stars in decades, but it also has an audience with an average age of 56 during last year’s nationally televised games.
Those demographics have gotten Manfred’s attention.
“It’s wanting to take a fresh look at where the game is and what we see as our job,” he said, “which is to put the best possible game on the field for our fans and preserve what we all believe is the best game in the world.”