MLB keeping controversial extra-inning rule while tweaking another

Those opposed to MLB’s extra-innings experiment the past three years will need to make a long-term adjustment.

The league’s Joint Competition Committee met and determined that it will keep the rule — where a runner starts at second for each additional inning, starting in the 10th — for 2023 and beyond,” according to ESPN. It was a unanimous decision, per MLB insider Jesse Rogers.

He reported that teams and pitchers “seem to approve” of what became the overarching theme of extra-inning games the past three years. The idea to automatically place a runner on second dated back to MLB’s restart following the COVID-19 shutdown, and it branched into last season when the lockout led to a shortened spring training.

“Pitchers don’t mind less wear and tear on their arms,” Rogers reported, “and front-office personnel hate the havoc that long, extra-inning affairs create with their rosters in the days following those games.”

But those opinions weren’t always mutual. The Mets lost their first game with the new rule in effect in July 2020, and then-manager Luis Rojas said afterward that “we’ll keep getting used to it as we move forward.” There were fewer games where additional innings kept stringing together. Strategy in those situations changed for managers, too.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred According to CBS Sports, only seven games went 13 innings in 2022, a number that significantly fell from 37 in 2019.

ESPN also reported that the Joint Competition Committee voted unanimously to tweak the rule that allows position players to pitch in games. According to Rogers, teams that trail by eight or more runs can use a position player, while teams leading a game must be up by 10 or more runs in order to make that type of switch.

Rogers cited concerns from players as one of the reasons for that switch, as hitting statistics “were beginning to be dramatically affected by so many position players pitching.” Position players pitched on 132 occasions last season per the Elias Sports Bureau, Rogers reported.