The buzz surrounding the Houston Astros has dominated the baseball world for months now, so MLB’s announcement last week of new rule changes for the 2020 season came and went not with a bang, but with a whimper.
You didn’t need an elaborate algorithm or a secret video feed to see these changes coming — in fact, it seemed like the Oakland A’s spent this offseason operating under the assumption that at least some of these rules (most notably, the three-batter minimum and the 26-man roster expansion) would be implemented this year. But now we have all of the new rules and their specifics.