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MLB objected to union's pace-of-play request for 'manager-blind challenges'

Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Heading into the 2018 season, there's little doubt that measures to increase the pace of play will be instituted across Major League Baseball. The only question is what they look like.

In a recent round of negotiations between the commissioner's office and the player's union, the MLBPA requested that replay review be sped up by adding "manager-blind challenges" - where clubhouses don't have the luxury of looking at video before deciding if a play is worth challenging.

However, MLB objected to the proposal on the belief that it would lead to more ill-conceived challenges - thereby impairing the quality of the game, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

Instead, baseball is hoping to address the problems of replay another way, by providing each team with video rooms that will receive immediate access to super-slow-motion video. Once complete, according to Rosenthal, baseball may look to reduce the 30-second time limit imposed on managers to call for a review.

Last season, the average review lasted one minute, 28 seconds. However, that doesn't take into account the times when managers would hold up play while employees in the clubhouse would look at replays to determine whether or not a play was worth challenging - which they often aren't.

Among the league's other proposed revisions to address pace of play are a pitch clock - which hasn't been well received by the union - and a limit on mound visits.

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