Well, that was a surprise. We're just two weeks away from the start of baseball season, yet they announced several major changes that are going to go into effect this season...with a few more rules changes set for next year. The surprise comes from how major some of them are and how late into Spring Training it is. It's also unusual that these are collectively-bargained things that are being done in the middle of the CBA. But make no mistake, these rules changes are all good.
Shorter Inning Breaks: Ever since Rob Manfred became commissioner, he's been obsessed with game length. He put in those stupid clocks and got rid of the intentional walk (that 25 seconds once every few games was really killing baseball!), although his new baby, the pitch clock, has been tabled until after the CBA expires in 2021. Of course, the easiest way to make games faster is to not have those ridiculously long commercial breaks between innings. Which is something that has finally been realized and addressed.
Trade Deadline: No more August trades! The two trade deadline thing was downright confusing, and the August one really took some of the luster out of the official trade deadline on July 31. Now teams have to decide if they're contenders or not. No more waiting a couple more weeks to see if you're still hanging around the wild card race. It should lead to more action at the actual deadline. I would've liked to have seen some sort of compromise date in between the two (say August 15), but I can make my peace with July 31 being the only deadline. And the rule about having to be on the roster before September 1 in order to qualify for postseason isn't changed, so they can still add players in August. They just can't trade for them.
All*Star Voting: We'll see how this one works, but I like the concept. Basically they're preventing fans of certain teams from stuffing the ballot box and making it so that a hot April doesn't carry a guy to an undeserved All*Star start. Fans will, hopefully, make more informed decisions. The campaigning element is the best part, though. It came about because of how successful the social media campaigning for the Final Vote has been in recent years, so why not expand it to the regular All*Star Game. There are other elements of this that have to be worked out (How much time between the end of the regular voting and Election Day? When will we find out who won?) But the idea is a good one. And the bonuses for the players who make it to Election Day are a great idea, too.
All*Star Extra Innings: This is probably the only new rule being implemented this year that I'm not completely on board with. The international tiebreaker has no place in Major League Baseball, even if the All*Star Game is just an exhibition. I understand they want to test it out and they don't want another Yankee Stadium situation. But it still seems gimmicky. Maybe let them play another inning or two then start the tiebreaker in the 12th?
Home Run Derby: They're trying to incentivize the game's biggest stars to actually participate in the Home Run Derby. Plain and simple. Mike Trout has never done it. Aaron Judge has done it once. Last year, they had like three non-All*Stars in it (and seven of the eight guys were from the National League). How do you make the players want to do it? Give $1 million to the winner.
Mound Visits: When they put these in last year, they came up with six as the maximum. I'm not sure where that number came from, but what they found was that it was too many. Most teams only used three or four per game (if that). And pitchers still probably think five is too many.
What I'm really excited about, though, are the rules changes that they've agreed upon for 2020.
Roster Size: Starting next year, active rosters will be increased to 26, with a maximum number of pitchers (they didn't announce it, but it'll probably be 13). Which means teams will no longer be able to have a two-man bench because they're carrying eight relievers. It also means you can't send down a utility guy and replace him with a reliever because you need another arm in the bullpen.
After the abundance of position players pitching last season, they're doing something about that, too. They can only pitch in extra innings or at the end of blowouts. Unless, of course, they're Shoehi Ohtani.
And they're finally doing something about the 40-man September roster! This has long been a rule that drove so many people crazy. Why were you allowed to randomly have 15 more guys for the most important games? Why were some teams playing with 40 and others with 27? Why was the team that's out of it treating it like a Spring Training game when it affected the pennant race? Rosters will be still be expanded in September, but only to 28. That's a reasonable number. You can still add a third catcher without having 13 relievers or your entire Triple A roster just because you can.
Pitching Minimums: Love this more than any of the other changes! Yes, it means the death of the LOOGY. But the number of pitching changes late in games had gotten out of control! Managers felt the need to use a different matchup reliever for every hitter (thus resulting in them running out of pitchers and needing to use position players). The half-innings with three pitching changes where none of them faces more than two batters absolutely kills the pace of any game (that might be why they take so long, too).
Managers will have to completely change their bullpen strategies, and we'll likely see bullpens constructed differently, too. But the excruciating parade of relievers (in every game!) will finally become a thing of the past. Maybe the result will be teams actually seeing the value of quality starting pitching. And maybe games will actually have pace again!
Injured List: (Still not crazy about renaming the DL, by the way.) You've gotta give them credit for trying. But too many teams figured out a way to manipulate the 10-day DL to get an extra reliever on the roster. The fifth starter would suddenly come up with a mysterious ailment when they conveniently could skip him in the rotation, then he'd be all healed from his "injury" when it came time for him to start again.
Same thing with Minor League assignments. They're going from 10 to 15 days, too. Again, it's not designed to make sure you have fresh arms delivered to the bullpen daily. Now, if you want to send a guy down, you'd better be sure. Because you're not getting him back for two weeks. (I'm sure the existing injury provision for recalls will still apply.)
All of these rule changes represent a huge step forward for the game of baseball. They addressed some issues that were a problem with everybody. There's still plenty of work to do (the players are still incredibly unhappy about what's happened to free agents the last two offseasons, and the Kris Bryants and Gleyber Torreses of the world starting the season in the Minors so that they don't accrue service time is still a major issue). But now that they've gotten this stuff out of the way, they can move on to those bigger-picture items. And they're going to start talking before the CBA expires after the 2021 season. Which is perhaps the best news of all.
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