MLB’s New Extra Innings Rule Nears Implementation In Rookie Leagues

MLB’s experimental extra-innings rule, which would affect the Rookie-level Gulf Coast and Arizona Leagues, is on second base right now, but it hasn’t quite made it all the way home.

The heads of the AZL and GCL both expect the change to come to their league in mid-June, but neither has heard anything official from Major or Minor League Baseball that indicates the rule change is final. The proposed change, which was mentioned by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday, would aim to speed up games by changing the way extra innings are played.

If a game is tied after nine innings, the teams would begin the 10th inning with a runner on second base. This is a variation on the International Baseball Federation’s tiebreaker rule, which allows teams to play the 10th inning under normal rules, but every successive inning begins with runners on first and second base with nobody out.

The IBAF’s extra-inning rule will also be in place at this year’s World Baseball Classic, and has been since the second iteration of the WBC in 2009.

Even though the rule appears set to be installed in the minor leagues this season, Manfred said it is a long way away from being enacted in the major leagues.

“Everything we try, I try to remain open minded about. We went ahead with that rule in a very limited basis because we felt it made sense in that developmental league,” he said. “We’re going to watch it. Maybe we learn something that changes our mind that it ought to be a broader rule. That’s not our current thinking.”

The effects of the rule would not only be felt in the stands. There’s a component that would impact the player-development side, too. Making an effort to limit extra innings also would help limit a pitcher’s innings and put hitters in a position to learn situational hitting on the fly.

“There’s two thoughts to it, and the first thought is what you and everyone else has heard, which is: ‘Hey, this is crazy,” the GCL’s manager of baseball and business operations Andy Shultz said. “Baseball doesn’t do this, it’s traditional. But then on the other hand, when you think of the minor leagues and especially the lower-level leagues, you’ve got young pitchers, pitchers that are developing and you get to 13, 14, 15 (innings), whatever it is, you start to get into extra innings and you’re worried about pitch counts, you’re worried about who’s going to pitch tomorrow, you’re worried about ‘Could somebody possibly get hurt?’

“Thinking about it from that, about what it does for player development, I can see why (they’re considering the rule).”

Although the proposed rule change only recently came to light, it got serious discussions during the GCL and AZL’s annual gatherings at this past year’s Winter Meetings. Although he’s a traditionalist, AZL president Bob Richmond understands why the rule was proposed and why it’s gained enough traction to be considered for use in his league.

“What I feel is that the Arizona League and the Gulf Coast League are the same way—we’re strictly for development,” he said. “It’s complex baseball, it’s a good place to implement the changes that they made. I think it’s a good place to do it because our fan base is almost non-existent with those games, and the idea is to speed games up to keep the attention of the baseball fans, especially the younger ones who are more used to instantaneous gratification of modern technology.”

The minor leagues also tried to speed up games in 2014, when the Arizona Fall League was used as the guinea pig for a host of new measures, including strict enforcement of 20 seconds between pitches and between-innings breaks of no longer than 2 minutes, 25 seconds. Batters were also required to be in the box and ready to hit with five second remaining on the 20-second timer.

The 41 extra-inning games in the GCL last season averaged 3 hours and 17 minutes. There were 26 such contests in the AZL, and they lasted an average of 3 hours and 26 minutes. Those games are especially lengthy when you consider that the AZL and GCL are played without promotions, between-innings contests or commercial breaks.

The new rule might not ever make it to the major leagues, but MLB and Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre are willing to experiment in an effort to find something that will work.

“Let’s see what it looks like,” Torre told Yahoo! Sports “It’s not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch. As much as it’s nice to talk about being at an 18-inning game, it takes time.”