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New MLB rules: Change is for the batter (and pitcher)

Ian Happ believes players eventually will adapt to MLB’s sweeping rules changes designed to increase action and accelerate the pace of play starting in 2023.

“We’ve adapted to rules changes since the start of the game,” Happ said of a pitch clock, a ban on defensive shifts, enlarging the bases and limiting pickoff moves. “We’ll find a way.

“[But] there are definitely some concerns on the players’ side.”

Happ, the Cubs’ representative to the MLB Players Association, thinks the majority of the 11-person committee, which included six ownership representatives, moved too quickly for the players’ tastes.