From the moment he took over as the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred has spoken publicly about many possible changes Bud Selig never mentioned. They possible changes started with limiting or preventing defensive shifts and have now gravitated towards limiting pitching changes.
That’s right, Manfred suggested today the league is looking into possibly limiting the number of pitching changes a team could make in a game. Manfred believes this could help speed up the pace of play in games.
“I am in favor of something like that,” Manfred said. “We’ve [MLB] spent a ton of time on this issue in the last few months.
According to ESPN Stats and Information, in 2005 the average game time in MLB was 2:49. That time peaked at 3:08 in 2014 before dropping to 3:04 this season.
Manfred expanded on his comments by stating he thinks part of the reason why games are longer is pitching changes.
“You know the problem with relief pitchers is that they’re so good. I’ve got nothing against relief pitchers, but they do two things to the game: The pitching changes themselves slow the game down, and our relief pitchers have become so dominant at the back end that they actually rob action out of the end of the game, the last few innings of the game. So relief pitchers is a topic that is under active consideration. We’re talking about that a lot internally.”Manfred was a guest Thursday on ESPN’s Mike & Mike.
Manfred’s comments come the same day the Los Angeles Dodgers used seven relievers to defeat the Washington Nationals 6-3 in the series finale of a three-game series in Washington D.C.
Once again, this isn’t the first time Manfred has suggested making dramatic changes t0 speed up the pace of Major League games. In mid-May, the average game stood at 3:00:26 and Manfred told ESPN that needed to go down.
“We think the single biggest thing we had going for us early in the year [last season] was player focus on the topic,” Manfred told ESPN. “And we feel like we’ve lost a little focus. So we’re doing a variety of things to try to get that focus back.”
In May when Manfred made those comments, he later added part of the reason why games started at slower this year than last was because of the weather.
“When it’s cold,” Manfred said, “the games do go longer.”
At that point in the season when Manfred made those comments on May 16th, the average game this season was once again 3:00:26. At the same time last year in 2015, the average game time was much lower at 2:53:33 before going back up to 2:56:14 at the end of the season.
Pitching changes and the weather aren’t the only two reasons why Manfred and the league office believe games are going slower this year. Another factor is a rise in pitches per game, which right now is just shy of 290 per nine-inning game, the highest total in seven years. A 35% increase in replay reviews compared to last year is also a factor in the increased average game time.
“We’re going to put a package of issues on the table with the union,” Manfred said in May about offseason. “Speculating about which ones I like and don’t like is counterproductive to that process at this point. I think the best I can do for you at this point is to say I’m prepared to think about additional rule changes that are relevant to the issue of pace of play.”
[ESPN]
