While most of the US was enthralled in the State of The Union address on Tuesday (February 5), discussions on possible rule changes that can (and likely in some cases, will) take effect for the 2019-’20 season in Major League Baseball:
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been working on structural tweaks that are expected to either this year or next include a pitch clock that would require a pitcher to throw a pitch every 20 seconds are part of an effort to speed up games. This comes on top of limiting mound visits and on an intentional walk having batters directly go to first base. More changes working with the players’ union have been on the table, which potentially could include among other things:
A three-batter minimum for pitchers
A universal designated hitter (meaning the National League would add the Designated Hitter)
A single trade deadline before the All-Star break
A 20-second pitch clock
The expansion of rosters to 26 men, with a 12-pitcher maximum
Draft advantages for winning teams and penalties for losing teams
A study to lower the mound
A rule that would allow two-sport amateurs to sign major league contracts
I’ll start with the universal DH, which is long overdue. While purists might like seeing pitchers hit and the strategy involved, the reality is many pitchers today once they get past Little League often are specializing in pitching and are not hitting at all. Most High School leagues, College Leagues and Minor Leagues all implement the DH, so except in rare cases, many pitchers (unless they also are playing another position when not pitching) are not hitting at all for many years until they reach the majors, and especially the National League. We have seen the careers of some pitchers ruined while running the bases, most notably Chen-Ming Wang when he was with the Yankees, who was injured running the bases and never was the same pitcher after that and in 2018 Masahiro Tanaka, also with the Yankees missed significant time after being injured while running the bases. For every Shoei Otani and Madison Baumgartner, I can give you a Charlie Leidbrant, who in the 1980’s and early ‘90s was a career .120 hitter and with the Braves in the early ‘90s hit only .107. If you have a really good hitting pitcher, you can use him as a DH on days he’s not pitching. The one thing that might derail it is some of the old-line owners in the National League, including most notably the Busch family, who clearly will object, citing tradition.
The single trade deadline before the All-Star Break likely makes sense. You could have such be the first Sunday after July 4 at Midnight Eastern Time (in 2019, that would be July 7, which coincidentally in 2019 is the last day of games before the All-Star Break). This actually would be sort of a return to a time when June 15 was the non-waiver trade deadline, although I do think there should still be a final waiver deadline, but perhaps moved up to August 15 from August 31.
Expansion of rosters to 26 from 25 players is something that probably should be done, especially since players simply except in rare cases don’t play all 162 games any longer. A 12-pitcher limit I think is also needed, as that also would be a disincentive to use so many pitchers in a game.
Draft advantages for winning teams might also be something to look at, although unlike other sports, in baseball first-round picks are not always as surefire as they are in other sports. It would still, however, give teams who’d otherwise not care actually trying to win games late in the season, especially when other teams may still be in a pennant race. Being able to sign two-sport amateurs to Major League contracts is something that needs to be looked at, especially when you do have potential stars like Kyler Murray who could potentially make more in MLB than in the NFL.
As for some of the other rules proposed, these are some that I would never do and/or would look to do much differently.
The three-batter minimum is sort of in line with rules I would have in place as it would cut down in pitching changes during a half-inning that slow a game down tremendously. I would, however, make such a rule unnecessary by changing the save rule considerably:
The big thing I would do away with is the closer who only comes in for the 9th inning, looking for a return to the days of a Sparky Lyle or Rich “Goose” Gossage, who especially in the late 1970’s with the Yankees often came in during the seventh inning to close out a game. In this case, I would make it where a reliever must throw at least two full innings to get a save if the lead when he comes in is three runs or less, or as it is now, three innings regardless of a team’s lead. The only exception to this would be if a reliever comes into the game with the tying run already on base, with such having to go the rest of the way to get the save (and as I would do it, a team can’t intentionally put a runner on with the bases empty, even if such a hitter was Barry Bonds in his later years or Ryan Howard in his peak years when they were often intentionally walked with the bases empty just to get a closer in to get a save because it happens to be the tying run).
The talk of lowering the pitcher’s mound is something I would stop dead in its tracks, as it would be the worst thing for Major League Baseball. I would actually go the other way and raise the pitchers’ mound back to the 15” it was at prior to the start of the division era in 1969, with teams actually allowed to have the pitcher’s mound even higher like the Dodgers often did in their 1960’s heyday in LA at 20”. That change in hindsight to me was an overreaction to a few things, including most notably:
Bob Gibson having a 1.12 ERA during the 1968 season in the National League with nine other pitchers having an ERA between 1.99-2.45 and another 18 starters having an ERA under 3.00.
Only five hitters (led by Pete Rose at .335) hitting above .300 for the year in the NL.
The Cincinnati Reds leading the NL in team hitting at .273 with the next highest team averages (Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates) being the only other teams in the NL with team Bas above .250.
Carl Yastermski (aka “Yaz”) being the only hitter in the American League to even hit above .300, and he hit .301.
No team in the American League having a team BA of higher than .240 (A’s in their first season in Oakland after moving from Kansas City following the 1967 season), with the New York Yankees and their .214 team batting average being dead last for 1968 and still I believe the worst team BA of any team in MLB history to finish a season with a winning record (at 83-79, actually their best record since losing the 1964 World Series to the Cardinals, the last time they would be in the World Series until 1976).
In conjunction with raising the pitchers’ mound back to where it was through 1968, I would also both return the size of the strike zone back to where it was before the start of the division era in 1969 and go to where ball and strike calls are automated. These three things would do WAY more to speed games up as not only would you not see as many relievers in a game, you would also likely see starters not only go much deeper into a game but would be much more likely to actually complete such games, doing so on what I suspect would be an average of 90-100 pitches per start, or what it has in more recent years starters have gotten to sometimes as early as the fourth inning. While that would not always be the case obviously, the higher mound and wider strike zone would likely see hitters taking far fewer pitches and putting more balls into play, making for much quicker innings.
From there, I would have financial incentives for teams to have starters who can go the distance more easily by mandating ALL teams have at least one-quarter of a team’s starts be complete games, with starters averaging 8-10 complete games a year. In this case, I would have it where the Luxury Tax threshold of a club for the following season would be lowered by $5 Million for every starter’s complete game under 41, while teams who have starters who combine for 45 or more complete games in a season would be rewarded by having the Luxury Tax threshold for the following season raised by $10 Million for every complete game starting with the 46th complete game of the year, capping such at 65 complete games (NOTE: If a game goes extra innings, once a starter has thrown nine innings it would be considered a complete game for this purpose). This also would eliminate with limited exceptions the “opening” pitcher we have seen some teams do in recent years as those, while effective I would never allow to be used the way the Tampa Bay Rays did in 2018.
If MLB really wants to speed up games, raising the pitchers’ mound, going to both an automated and expanded strike zone (returning all to how it was before 1969 when division play started) and putting financial incentives to teams to have their starters throw complete games are to me the best ways to do that. The goal here would be to cut the average time of a game from just over three hours to two hours and twenty-five minutes, about as realistic a goal as possible for MLB given the commercial loads most baseball telecasts and radiocasts have nowadays. In the short-attention span world we presently live in, severely shortening the times of baseball games would really help the sport with those younger who are turned off by the pace of play, something that really does need to be addressed.
Edited to add: Since this originally written in 2019, MLB has adopted new rules banning the shift as well as instituting a pitch clock among other things. This has so far in the 2023 season (the first with the new rules) sped up games sharply, with average game times reduced by 30 minutes with players generally getting very quickly used to the new rules. In my opinion, returning the pitchers mound and strike zone to where they were in 1968 and putting an emphasis on complete games as noted above could bring down game times further to an average of two hours and five minutes, making it more easily fit a two and a half hour broadcast window. The idea would be for pitchers to learn how to actually pitch the way the late Tom Seaver often did it, usually throwing around 75-80 miles per hour with an occasional pitch of 90+ MPH and putting many more balls in play. This again is about speeding up games further.
wallyhorse 