Minnesota Twins: Commissioner’s pace of play demands just seem strange

The Minnesota Twins may be adjusting to new rules in 2018 to help with the pace of play in games. Is it the right move for Commissioner Rob Manfred?

The Minnesota Twins and the rest of Major League Baseball may be adjusting to a series of rule changes in 2018 and following seasons. It is all a result of Commissioner Rob Manfred and his quest to address pace of play in Major League Baseball.

While Manfred hopes that the MLBPA will be able to reach an agreement with he and the MLB, Manfred is also prepared to start implementing changes without players consent. Something that is possible under the terms of the 2016 collective bargaining agreement for any proposals that are at least a year old. Since these changes were proposed before last season, this spring marks that one year mark. The whole situation is beginning to feel like quite the strong-arm from the commissioner.

There are different elements involved in the proposed solution to try to quicken the pace of the major league game. Pitch Clock and limited mound visits are among the leading proposals to try to reach the commissioner’s goal of average game times under 2 hours and 55 minutes. If that goal is not met in 2018, in Manfred’s current proposal to the MLBPA he would implement a pitch clock for the 2019 season. Then in 2019 if a pitch clock wasn’t already established, a similar demand would be in place for average game times to reduce another 5 minutes to 2 hours and 50 minutes.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the pace of play discussion seems to be (for me at least), who has the issue with the pace of baseball? Is it just a blanket assumption that Millennials and younger need fast-paced entertainment? Is it a reaction to a drop in television ratings? Is there just some other reason out there that I am oblivious to.

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Out of those questions, television ratings are clearly a concern since cable deals are huge revenue makers for MLB teams. Is the reason for dropped rating truly because of the product, or simply because of the number of people (maybe here we can truly “blame” Millennials) “cutting the cord” and no longer subscribing to cable.

Even if it is the product on the field, is 10 or 15 minutes really going to make that big of a difference? Is the view of those who are fringe of being baseball fans truly, you have me for 175 minutes but at 180 we’re out? Or fringe viewers are good if pitchers take 20 seconds between pitches, but at 25 or 30 they’re out? There may be an issue going on with baseball, but is it really because of the pace of play or is Manfred trying to address the wrong issue?

Some of the most devout baseball fans would certainly welcome a way to speed up replay reviews. Even figuring out a way to speed up mound visits would likely be welcomed, making the idea of limiting non-pitching change mound visits tolerable. As the pace of play discussion continues all it seems to do is upset people. Searching Twitter for “pace of play” I was hard-pressed to find anyone tweeting in favor of any of Manfred’s suggestions or assumptions about the pace of play. And there was this tweet from Danny Duffy of the Kansas City Royals:

In the bigger picture of major league baseball, this just seems like a strange focus since there seems to be a much bigger issue looming in the ongoing stalemate between major league clubs and free agents this winter. And if the last day or so says anything, it seems that players and agents are becoming more and more frustrated with what is occurring.

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I could be wrong, but if the pace of play conversation has to do with viewership Manfred may have diagnosed the wrong cause. There very well could be a more cultural reason to the drop in TV viewing than a baseball reason. Regardless, it appears he has an MLB-MLBPA dispute about to explode on his watch. Instead of forcing these type of rules onto the players he may want to consider reconciling this strained relationship before he loses any voice he has with the players.