Major League Baseball has announced a series of rule changes, many of which simply adjust changes that were just made prior to last season. The players union objected to the changes, but MLB holds a majority of the seats on the competition committee and was thus able to push them through anyway. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m feeling pretty exhausted and will not be delving into much beyond laying out a few of the amendments.
Here’s the quick and dirty, but you can view all the details in the tweet below if you’re so inclined:
- pitch clock reduced from 20 to 18 seconds with runners on base
- mound visits reduced from 5 to 4
- pitcher who warms up at start of inning must face at least one batter
- running lane widened to include dirt between foul line and infield grass.