MLB explains new pace-of-game rules

Major League Baseball began educating teams this week about the new rules implemented to improve pace-of-play this season, detailing the new policies along with potential penalties for violators.

"I thought they did a great job of presenting it," Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said Tuesday after his team's meeting with MLB officials. "I thought it was a good meeting. I don't think that there was anything I was alarmed by.... I think some of these changes are going to be subtle. Like anything, you'll have proponents and you'll have people who are against it. But I'm all in favor. I think it's a great thing. And I love that they're being proactive about it."

ESPN's Jayson Stark provided an itemized list of the changes as relayed by Peter Woodfork, the league's senior vice president of baseball operations, and other sources:

• The timers in ballparks that are used to count down between-inning commercial breaks will also be used during pitching changes in the same way. When a reliever leaves the bullpen and reaches the field, the timer will be activated - starting at 2 minutes, 25 seconds on local TV games, 2:45 on national games. The reliever will have that amount of time to reach the mound and throw his warmup pitches. As with between-inning breaks, relievers are supposed to throw their final warmup pitch with 30 seconds left on the clock. 

• When players violate one of the new rules - by not being ready to pitch or hit when the clock counts down or when a hitter leaves the batter's box between pitches - they are subject to fines up to $500 per violation. 

• If a player is a habitual violator, particularly of the batter's box rule, umpires are expected to have some leeway to handle those situations differently. But for the most part, league officials will speak to habitual violators afterward, off the field. In general, umpires are likely to be urged to avoid confrontations over violations of the pace-of-game rules.

• Hitters who keep one foot in the box but maintain lengthy routines of adjusting batting gloves and other pre-pitch rituals will not be considered to be in violation of the new rules, even though it runs contrary to the spirit of them. 

• While managers will be encouraged to signal for replay reviews from the dugout area, umpires and league officials understand that won't be possible in every case. In fact, it's expected that most replays will still require the manager to inform the umpire verbally of exactly what he is challenging.

• Managers are being told they can still wait for their video consultants to let them know whether to challenge a play and that they won't necessarily be under any pressure to challenge plays more quickly.

• Although there won't be a pitch clock in the major leagues this year, MLB will be supplying information to all clubs about how long each pitcher takes between pitches.

Though the league expects at least a little resistance to some of the new rules, Woodfork emphasized that these changes were implemented to improve game tempo - regular-season games averaged a record 3 hours, 8 minutes in 2014 - without compromising the game's integrity.

"We're trying to do something overall to help improve the game," Woodfork said. "The program will be effective with the co-operation of players, umpires and the clubs all working together. The goal is for everyone to get on the same page and try to make things better."