The average length of a MLB game increased to 3 hours, 4 minutes this past season with the duration lasting even longer in the playoffs (3:42 in World Series). Length of games is one of the reasons young fans are turning away from baseball, but commissioner Rob Manfred hopes to create new initiatives to help speed up the sport.
“Pace of play is one of those topics that’s going to be a constant, ongoing, year-after-year challenge for us,” Manfred told reporters Wednesday at the annual general managers meeting held this year in Scottsdale, Ariz. “I really mean this. I think our players’ hearts are in the right place, but because we play 162 times in 183 days, it’s easy to lose focus on that issue and I think we lost a little bit of focus this year.”
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Limiting mound visits, implementing a 20-second pitch clock currently used in the minors, creating stricter time constraints for each at-bat, and enhancing replay reviews are just some of the topics being brainstormed to speed up baseball.
"They’re not sitting on one idea and it’s either make-or-break there,” Giants GM Bobby Evans said. “The game is ever-changing — how the games are played or how they’re approached is different today than it was 10 years ago or five years ago. So it’s always in baseball’s interest to keep an open mind and look at new ideas.”
Any recommendations would require union approval and would likely cause a backlash from purists and players alike.
Speaking of backlash, Manfred needs to understand more about President-elect Donald Trump’s international policies before determining whether they could be detrimental to baseball and its ever-growing Latin American communities.
“I haven’t heard anything with respect to Cuba issues that would suggest there is going to be any change," he said. "I think we’re all familiar with the things he said about Mexico. I think we need to wait and see what actually happens.”
With Mexico City being talked about as a possible expansion site, Trump's idea to deport millions of the nation's immigrants and build a wall across the border have left many Latino players with a feeling of anxiety with their future in the sport.