Major League Baseball is reportedly working with the MLB Players Association to potentially eliminate the fines (in the range of $100 to $500) regarding the new pace-of-play rules that were scheduled to begin May 1.
Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reported Thursday the final details are still being hammered out, but the league is expected to at least ease the punishments. Tony Clark, the executive director of the players' union, told the outlet the progress that's been made has facilitated the likely change: "The idea here was to effect some positive changes in habits, and to see if, by doing so, we could also shorten the length of games and perhaps improve the pace. And the result is that a lot of [players] have done exactly that. ... So to penalize guys just to penalize them doesn't make a lot of sense."
The report notes the pace of games early in 2015 is down more than eight minutes from 2014. The revised plan would call for the league to continue contacting players who are consistently breaking the new standards, with possible fines for "flagrant violations."
These new standards set by MLB include staying in the batter's box during at-bats as well as using timers between innings in an effort to increase the speed of play. So far, the results would suggest things are trending in the right direction.
Len Kasper, play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Cubs, weighed in on the rules and the impact on the game:
Back in February, Nick Schwartz of USA Today passed along comments from Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who is famous for his between-pitch rituals. It's safe to say he wasn't a fan of the changes:
Well, I might run out of money. I'm serious. I'm not going to change my game. I don't care what they say. My game, it's not like I go around and do all kinds of stupid [expletive]. But I have to take my time and think about what that [pitcher] is going to do next. I'm pretty sure every single hitter at this level is on the same page…. They put their rules together, but they don't talk to us, as hitters, how do you feel about this? You know what I'm saying? Why don't you come and ask questions first. And then we can get in an agreement. But then you got to do this just because you say so. Oh buddy, it doesn't work that way. Trust me.
Now it seems Ortiz won't have to worry about losing some cash every at-bat. Whether the league will reconsider its stance if the pace of play begins to slow back down is unknown, but the issue has definitely been a hot topic in recent years.
Apparently, MLB is happy enough with the progress to move forward without the threat of fines looming over players' heads—at least for now.
Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2448893-mlb-reportedly-unlikely-to-implement-pace-of-play-fines
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