Major League Baseball and its players association are getting serious about these pace-of-play issues.
On Thursday, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced modifications that will be in place when the 2017 regular season starts next month.
The changes include the following:
The no-pitch intentional walk: This allows the defensive team’s manager to signal a decision to the home plate umpire to intentionally walk the batter. Following the signal of the manager’s intention, the umpire will immediately award first base to the batter.
There are indications, however, that a manager may still have the option of directing his pitcher to throw the four pitches.