Major League Baseball officials and their union counterparts are reportedly close on agreeing to make more changes aimed at speeding up the pace-of-game.
According to the New York Post, the league is taking aim at two specific areas of play affecting both pitchers and hitters.
The first such change will influence the in-game pitching changes managers often use to stall and slow down the opposing team’s offence. The new rules will require pitching changes to move more quickly by adding a time limit when deciding to make a call to the bullpen.
Introduced last year for non-nationally televised games, the between-inning clock will also undergo a slight change. This past season the hitter was required to step inside the box with 20 seconds left on the 2:25 clock, the pitcher to deliver when the timer reached 0.
With commercial breaks running for 2:05 between innings, the league will now enforce this time limit for both hitter and pitcher, with the first pitch thrown as soon as the game returns from commercial break.
The pace-of-play changes shaved off an average of six minutes per-game last season, something Major League Baseball hopes to improve on.
