So the MLB announced some rules changes for the upcoming season and 2020, and well here they are:

2019

Single Trade Deadline - Instead of having the July 31st trade deadline and then following it up with still allowing trades to happen if they go through waivers, the MLB has axed the latter. Get it done by July 31st or it doesn’t happen.
All-Star Election Day - All-Star voting will now be set up into two different rounds. The first round will consist of all teams nominating 1 player per position and the fans will vote on these players. Then apparently there will be a day set aside where the top 3 vote-getters up until that point will be voted on again.
$1 Million Home Run Derby Prize - This one is pretty self explanatory, the prize for winning the HR Derby is a million bucks.
Time Between Innings - The break in between innings will be shortened from 2:05 to 2:00 for local games and 2:25 to 2:00 for national games as well.

2020

Roster Expansion - The roster is expanding from 25 to 26 players with a max of 13 pitchers but is decreasing from 40 to 28 players with a max of 14 pitchers for the September rosters.
15 Day Injured List - The league is going back to a 15 day disabled list, whoops I mean injured list, instead of the 10 day injured list.
Three Batter Minimum - Starting in 2020 a three batter minimum will be in place for relief pitchers unless they are injured.

Well there is quite a bit to unravel here but most of these changes are very minor, other than the obvious one. We’ll get to that later though. To start, I’m a fan of most of these. The single trade deadline makes sense, because I’m a pretty big baseball fan and I still never truly understood how the waiver trades worked. It also led to the actual trade deadline not having quite as much significance due to the fact that players could still get dealt. So this change, makes a lot of sense. As far as the All-Star changes, I could really careless about how the voting is done. I mean it sounds exciting to have an “Election Day” but I’ll have to see how that one plays out. Of course the million dollar prize for the Home Run Derby is a great addition. The one reason the NBA Slam Dunk competition is less entertaining that it should be is due to the stars not wanting to compete. While the MLB usually doesn’t have any issues getting their stars in the Home Run Derby, this will ensure that most all will want to participate. And lastly, for the 2019 rule additions, they are shortening the breaks in between innings to 2 minutes. Another change that I don’t really care about, but I guess anytime you could shave off that doesn’t threaten the actual game, I’m fine with.

Now onto the 2020 rule changes. The roster is expanding by 1 so that will give 30 more guys big league jobs, so I guess that’s good. I don’t really see the point in changing the September roster down to 28. While I’ll agree that 40 is absurd number to have on a baseball roster, it was a good chance for players to get the call up to the majors and given them a chance to prove themselves, who otherwise wouldn’t have that opportunity on a 28 man roster. So I don’t really understand the need for that change. The 15 day injured list is another rather insignificant change since it was a 15 day IL just a couple of years ago and it was changed to 10. My biggest gripe with that is the change from disabled list to injured list. The DL just had a nice ring to it. And then lastly, the big one……

I’m going to need a separate paragraph for this one. The rule change for relief pitchers that will force them to pitch to a minimum of 3 batters unless they get hurt. This is the only rule that it actually messing with the game of baseball and I’m not a fan. I don’t understand Rob Manfred and his desire to make these drastic changes to the actual game of baseball. I will at least say that I would rather have this rule than the pitch clock but I’m still not a fan. I’ll agree that pitching changes can get ridiculous at times late in tight ball games, but guess what? That’s baseball baby, and if you don’t like it then get over it. It’s going to really interesting to see what they put in place to keep from this rule being exposed. If a pitcher says he can only pitch to 1 batter because he’s “hurt”, will he be forced to the DL or to at least sit out a couple of games? Otherwise this rule might as well not exist. Then my biggest gripe of all is if this rule is in place for the playoffs, which I assume it will be. Playoff baseball is the most nerve-wracking thing in the world and if a team wants to bring in 10 different pitchers to preserve their 1 run lead then they deserve every right to be able to do that. The most shocking part to me is that the Players Association will not challenge this rule. A lot of player were vocal about the pitch clock and it looks like we’ve avoided that for the time being but it’s going to be very interesting to hear what the players have to say about this one.

What do you guys think about the new rule changes?

Thanny

Thoughts On The MLB Rule Changes