Controversial MLB rule changes to shake up 2019 and beyond

On Thursday, Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association announced some rule changes starting immediately and several others to begin in 2020. The impact is expected to help reduce the average time of games while also improving the overall image of the sport.

The two sides also announced there will be an open dialogue in addressing certain economic concerns of the game such as making free agency more lucrative for players, decreasing the incentive to “tank,” and manipulating service time of prospects in the minors.

2019 Rule Changes:

One Trade Deadline

The idea of a single trade deadline was first proposed by the union, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Though players can be placed and claimed on outright waivers after July 31, they cannot be traded after that date.

The impetus for such a switch is to end late-season salary dumps and major August acquisitions. This alteration would seem to negatively impact a few teams with bloated contracts such as NL West clubs like San Francisco, Arizona and San Diego.

For the Giants, who will pay $363.8MM in the next few seasons to just seven players – Evan Longoria, Buster Posey, Johnny Cueto, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Jeff Samardzija, and Mark Melancon – the opportunity to dump even a portion of these salaries as they start a rebuild should become incredibly difficult under these new rules.

Should the wheels fall off for the 2019 Rockies, there are not significant salaries to dump. While players Ian Desmond, Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee and Mike Dunn have not lived up to expectations, their combined salaries of $87.5MM do not make up a large portion of the payroll and after 2020, only $10MM will be due to Desmond.

In contrast, the Dodgers will be paying $43.8MM for dead contracts to players that won’t even suit up for them in 2019: Homer Bailey, Matt Kemp, Yaisel Sierra, Hector Olivera, Josh Fields and Dion Toscano.

Before the August 31st deadline last season, 24 trades were made as compared to 48 before what was the July 31st non-waiver deadline.

Colorado made one August trade in 2018 by acquiring catcher Drew Butera from Kansas City in exchange for left-handed reliever Jerry Vasto.

This hard deadline could expedite trade negotiations and create a self-imposed soft trade deadline of July 10th, the day after the All-Star Game, for the top talent. Such a deadline would give teams in contention a second opportunity to fortify its roster before the actual July 31st deadline.

Should the Rockies get off to a poor start and wait until August again to catch fire, they will have to look within their organization at young options like Brendan Rodgers, Tyler Nevin, Colton Welker and Justin Lawrence to help provide a spark for the final two months.

Election Day for the All-Star Game

Occasionally, fan voting can lead to less deserving players starting the All-Star Game, but almost always, those players are deserving of being an All-Star.

Beginning this season, there will actually be two rounds of voting. Fans will vote as normal, but this will be only the beginning of the process.

The top three vote getters at each position and top six for the outfielder will be subject to a 24-hour Election Day voting that comes with financial bonuses for those elected as starters.

In addition, the All-Star Game itself will see one rule change: starting in the tenth inning, a runner will be placed at second base. Players previously removed from the game will be eligible to return as pinch runners.

As minor of a change as this may seem, Election Day should greatly expand MLB’s profile amongst social media users, not to mention increasing fan engagement.

Home Run Derby winner receives $1 million

Last year’s Derby winner, Bryce Harper, received just $125,000 for his efforts, with a total prize pool of $525,000 given out. Starting in 2019, not only will the winner walk away with a cool million, but the prize pool will inflate to $2.5MM for those involved.

With the ink barely dry on a $260MM contract, the odds are no greater for third baseman Nolan Arenado to participate in this midsummer spectacle. If Arenado were to participate, he would certainly be a favorite to become the first Rockies player to win the Home Run Derby after leading the National League in 3 of the last 4 seasons.

The Rockies have been represented well in the most recent Home Run Derbys, with five appearances in the last six years: Blackmon (2017) Carlos Gonzalez (2012, 2016), Morneau (2014), and Cuddyer (2013).

Not only will the participants of the Derby be financially compensated, but the payouts to the winning league in the All-Star Game itself will be increased.

Five mound visits now, four in 2020 (potentially)

Since implementation of six mound visits per team at the start of 2018, most clubs have been cautious in exhausting these trips. So sparingly were these visits used, that MLB may even reduce these visits to just four in 2020.

Also relating to mound visits, which can often be tied to changing signs once compromised by the opposing team, is the monitoring of new phone lines which connect the dugout and video review rooms in order to limit certain opportunities for the opposing team to steal such signs.

Shortened commercial breaks

With attention spans decreasing by 88 percent per year, the quicker breaks between half innings will be helpful in cutting down game times to nearly six minutes on average. Local games will have breaks reduced by five seconds, from 2:05 to 2:00, while national games will go from 2:25 to 2:00, with an option to be reduced to 1:55, as per Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Such a reduction in time means pitchers will no longer be guaranteed eight warmup pitches; rather, they will get all that time allows. It breaks down like this:

When the third out is made, a clock will count down 2 minutes and 5 seconds. During this time, the pitcher can opt to throw as many as possible before an umpire signals for the final warm up pitch to be thrown with 25 seconds remaining in the break. The batter is announced with 20 seconds left and the pitcher will have the remaining 5 seconds to throw his first pitch to the batter before the clock strikes zero.

Should the pitcher or catcher be on deck or on base at the time of the third out, the 2:05 clock will not begin until this player enters the dugout.

The same timing methodology will be applied to pitching changes with the 2:05 clock starting when the pitcher crosses the warning track or, as in the case of Oracle Park in San Francisco, the foul line as bullpens are located in foul territory.

2020 Rule Changes:

26-Man Roster and 28-Man Roster in September

From Opening Day through August 31, rosters will increase to 26 with the doubleheader roster rising from 26 to 27.

Beginning September 1, teams can roster 28 players.

Potentially coming down the pike is a rule to limit the number of pitchers on the active roster; however, a joint committee could decide upon the number at a future date. If this becomes official, teams will need to designate each player as either a pitcher or a position player prior to the season and his status cannot be changed for the remainder of the year.

Such a rule change would seemingly signal the death of the position player pitcher, but this is not the case.

There would still be three windows of opportunity: during extra innings, when a team is losing or winning by six or more runs, and if a player is designated as a “Two-Way Player.”

Status as a “Two-Way Player” would be defined as one who pitched at least 20 innings in the majors and started at least 20 games as a position player or designated hitter.

To further muddle with specifics, a game played would be qualified as a position player or designated hitter who has accumulated at least three plate appearances.

The likelihood of this rule being implemented seems to be the longest shot as two-way players have only recently come into vogue with players like Shohei Otani, Michael Lorenzen (as we may see this year) and in the minor leagues with 2017’s 4th overall pick, Brendan McKay.

No more position players pitching (kind of)

It’s unclear if there is data to support that position players pitching increases the game time, but this change might suggest that MLB has such information. As mentioned with the previous rule change, position players will be able to pitch in extra inning games, though most teams probably wouldn’t want that to happen in most cases.

Three batter minimum for pitchers

This would be the most puzzling of the new rules because as The Athletic’s Jayson Stark pointed out, only one pitcher (Jerry Blevins) made a one batter appearance twenty times, while just six had fifteen or more of such an appearance. Consider this the end of the LOOGY (Lefty One Out GuY) and the rebirth of the reliever with stuff to get out batters from both sides of the plate.

Of all the new rules, this could impact the Rockies the most. If the probable lineup for Colorado in 2020 also features batters going back-and-forth from different sides of the plate, then this creates a scenario whereby a right-handed reliever comes on to face Story, Dahl and Desmond, giving Colorado at least one favorable crack at the reliever in Dahl.

The same could be said if a lefty were to enter the game with Blackmon, Arenado and Murphy; Arenado gives Colorado one very good option to keep the inning alive.

Injured List increased back to 15 days

Finally, a death to the Dodger DL. After Los Angeles and other clubs played the previous rule like a fiddle, shuttling 40-man players back-and-forth between the 10-day injured list and the active roster, it was obvious a change needed to be made.

This re-correction also means players optioned to the minors will now need to spend 15 days away from the major league club before being recalled.

As per MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince, the 10-day IL manipulation by certain clubs to keep relievers rested further contributed to longer games since more pitching changes were made available to them.

Conclusion

Much like 2018 when MLB instated a rule for all ballparks to have safety netting going around home plate from first base to third base, the impact on the game will be negligible for baseball fans.

If you consider the rule changes MLB has established with the independent Atlantic League, then major impacts would certainly be apparent.

But that, as Harry Ralston Black and the Emerald City Gateman would say, is a horse of a different color.