• Slug: SPORTS-Baseball rule changes, 683 words
• Photo included (thumbnail attached below).

By ANDRE SIMMS
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – With only about two weeks to go in spring training, managers are whittling down rosters and getting a much clearer picture of what lies ahead in the regular season.

What isn’t as clear is how a batch of rule changes that Major League Baseball unveiled Thursday will impact the game. Some of the rules will be in effect on Opening Day. Even more are coming in 2020.

As with other recent changes, most of the focus is on pace of play. However, MLB also eliminated the August non-waiver trade deadline beginning this season. Instead of two deadlines, there will be a single non-waiver trade deadline July 31. Players can still be claimed off of waivers after July 31, but cannot be traded.

Continue reading “Baseball introduces more rule changes in effort to speed up play”