The intentional walk is dead. Long live the intentional walk.
MLB and the MLBPA officially announced the pace of play rule changes for the 2017 season, which includes the implementation of the no-pitch intentional walk. Also included is a 30 second limit for a manager to challenge a play and a maximum of two minutes per replay review.
MLB & the MLBPA today jointly announced a series of modifications that have been approved and will be in place in the 2017 regular season: pic.twitter.com/IjVboUSCGd
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) March 2, 2017
Alright, let’s go down the list one by one.
I don’t have a strong feeling either way on the no-pitch intentional walk. It won’t save much time per game, and the opportunity for crazy shit to happen doesn’t come up all that often. I think it will streamline things a little bit – will Miguel Cabrera even bother taking his bat to the plate with a man on second and one out during the late innings of a close game?
The time limit for challenging a replay is great, presuming it’s enforced. There’s way too much time wasted every game when the manager steps out of the dugout after a close play, stares at his replay assistant for a minute, and then walks back into the dugout.
Pushing the crew chief reviews back to the eighth inning instead of the seventh probably won’t make much of an impact, but just wait until a Yankee is called out on a close play in the seventh inning when Joe Girardi is out of challenges. The rage will be through the roof.
A two minute time limit for replays is also great. It’s not as if after two minutes, a previously unseen camera angle will magically appear. On the TV broadcasts during replay reviews, we generally see the same angles over and over again – how many times do the umpires really need to see the same angles to make a decision?
The field markers rule is pretty clearly aimed at the Dodgers, who caused some waves with the Mets last year when they asked about possibly having markers in the Citi Field outfield to position their outfielders. I don’t think it’s going to end up making much of a change overall.
The “second step” rule is clearly aimed at guys like Carter Capps and Jordan Walden, who have unorthodox deliveries. With Capps recovering from Tommy John surgery and Walden an unsigned free agent due to injuries, I don’t suspect this will come up this year.
And then there’s the base coach rule, which no one will probably even notice or care about.
So all in all, the no-pitch intentional walk is the rule change that will get the most buzz, but the tweaks to replay are what will really speed up the game and have an overall positive impact. For all of the scorn related to the potential rule changes this offseason, the tweaks aren’t really that major and won’t destroy the fabric of baseball as we know it.
