When the rules changes were announced on March 14th, there really wasn't anything too earth shattering, but it does feel like some substantial changes are building during the next CBA negotiation at the conclusion of the 2021 season - expansion (possibly globalism), fewer games, shorter games and fixing free agency all will be hot topics and to the league office's credit, Commissioner Manfred has done a tremendous job of being open in discussing the future of professional baseball.
For this round of changes, however - there were some interesting small adjustments.
1. Changes to encourage faster games:
- Inning Breaks are reduced by 0:05 in regional broadcast games and 0:25 in national broadcast games. For a national game, that is somewhat significant savings of 7+ minutes, but just shows the commitment to faster games.
- Maximum mound visits reduced from 6 to 5. I have a hard time remembering a game without playoff implications where this was an issue, but this rule definitely needs to be considered for playoff and extra innings games. The Red Sox / Dodgers World Series Game 3 that went 18 innings definitely required more than 5 mound visits given the gravity of the situation.
- Starting in 2020, each pitcher will be required to face a minimum of 3 batters. In the history of baseball, only 9 pitchers averaged fewer than 3 batters per appearance. This impacts playoff atmosphere games, but most regular season games should be unaffected. What is interesting is that managers are going to have to make difficult decisions with their bullpens when they are in trouble. The pitcher that can come in and kill a rally in the 7th inning may end up becoming more valuable than the closer. Left-handed specialists should be on notice that they had better figure out how to get right-handed batters out.
2. Roster Size:
- Starting in 2020, the roster size from opening day through August 31 will be 26 players and can be expanded to 27 in the event of a doubleheader. This is actually interesting. This is basically adding one + expansion team to the league. 30 players who otherwise would have been in the minors are now active big league players. In the history of baseball, expansion leads to poorer quality of play for a period of time. Steroids get a lot of credit for creating the home run era, but there were also four expansion teams added between 1993 and 1998 (same year as McGwire/Sosa), creating 100 new big league opportunities for players who would have otherwise been in the minors and arguably 50 minor-league level pitchers throwing to some of the best power hitters in the history of the sport.
- Starting in 2020, there are no more 40-man rosters. Starting on September 1, all teams will carry 28 players. This one is fascinating to me because with all of the talk about the arbitration clocks, this reduces the number of players in a big way. Vlad Guerrero Jr. would still be kept in AAA, but some bullpen piece that turns out to be Chris Sale may not get a September opportunity. This should make for better and shorter September games for the managers that love mix and match.
- Starting in 2020, we are back to the 15-day DL. It was obvious that teams were manipulating the rosters by putting players on the 10-day DL, so back to the previous format.
3. Trade Deadline:
- The trade deadline is now a hard stop on July 31st. This should create some buzz and it will be interesting to see how teams and General Managers react to an actual deadline. I think that two months of baseball is a lot of time and many teams fade in August, so it would be worth considering changing the date to August 15th in the future to allow for more trade opportunities. Trades are good for the game and create media buzz about teams.
- There will no longer be any waiver trades allowed - FINALLY! Waiver trades were often confusing and rarely were impact names able to move. Players can still change teams after July 31st, but it is through the typical waiver process. I will be interested to see if teams with burdensome contracts have a greater opportunity to shed those players in August.
4. All Star Game Improvements:
- Voting has been silly for years. MLB prepares a ballot probably around opening day and often there are a few players that are injured and even some that lost their starting job by May when voting gets interesting. Now teams identify one player at each position for fans to vote for. This could end up creating some interesting tension for the players if teams are splitting time at a certain position (i.e. Boston - Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce at 1B), but generally a nice enhancement to the ballot process.
- Voting Day. This is another smart marketing move. MLB can create buzz for a voting day where the top-3 options at each position have a final push to the starting lineup. What is concerning is that there could be a fan base that pushes their entire starting lineup into starting at the All Star Game while the more deserving player sits on the sidelines. This is something that happened in the old format as well, so it's more of monitoring it and ensuring that it doesn't get worse.
- More money. Bonuses are being paid to the top-3 vote getters on the voting day ballot; more money for the winning team and more money to participate in the Home Run Derby. Baseball hasn't gone the way of the NBA with their Slam Dunk contest, but there are always a couple players in the derby with some disconnect. Hopefully $1M to the winner of the derby will attract the top-8 sluggers.
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