Don Mattingly ordered more intentional walks — 62 — than any other manager in the majors last season. This season, the process of putting a batter on base won’t take quite as long.
Major League Baseball is doing away with the formality of having pitchers lob four balls out of the strike zone in order to walk a batter intentionally. Instead, managers will merely need to signal their desire with the point of a finger or some yet unknown gesture.
“I think it’s good,” the Marlins manager said of the new rule change, which has not been officially announced yet.