Major League Baseball and the players’ association announced their agreement on pitchless intentional walks, and the change took effect with games starting Thursday.
If a manager signals the plate umpire for an intentional walk, the umpire would tell the batter to take first base.
Commissioner Rob Manfred had hoped for more radical pace-of-game changes, but the union did not agree to raising the bottom of the strike zone, pitch clocks or limits on trips to the mound. MLB can make unilateral changes only with one year advance notice.
Two other rule changes were announced Thursday. An addition to Rule 5.07 formalizes an umpire interpretation and prohibits a pitcher from resetting his pivot foot or taking a second step toward home plate during his delivery. If the pitcher violates the rule with a runner on base, a balk should be called. If there are no runners, a violation should be considered an illegal pitch under Rule 6.02(b).
A change to Rule 5.03 requires base coaches to remain behind the line of the coach’s box closest to the plate and the front line parallel to the foul line prior to the pitch. A coach may leave the box to signal a player after a ball is in play.
In addition, video review regulations were changed to establish a 30-second limit for a manager to make a challenge and a conditional two-minute guideline for the replay umpire to make a decision. When a manager is out of challenges, a crew chief may ask for a review of a non-home run call starting in the eighth inning, one inning later than last year.
MLB also announced the prohibition of field markers to create references for positioning fielders.
Kang sentenced
A South Korean court handed Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang a suspended two-year prison sentence for fleeing the scene after crashing a car into a guardrail while driving under the influence of alcohol. The sentence handed down by the Seoul Central District Court was a heavier punishment than the 15 million won ($13,000) fine prosecutors had sought, but still clears the 29-year-old Kang to join the Pirates for the new season . . . Yoenis Cespedes hit first homer of the spring, clearing the batter’s eye dozens of feet high behind the 410-foot fence in center field, in the Mets’ 11-6 spring training victory over the Marlins in Port St. Lucie, Fla. . . . Ex-major league pitcher Jack McDowell was hired to coach a startup team at Division 2 Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.).
