MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, attending last night’s AL Wild Card Game in N.Y., said he remains optimistic of reaching an agreement with the MLBPA on pace-of-play rules changes that will be “meaningful.” There have been ongoing talks between the league and union, and with what Manfred termed as “direct engagement with players.” The continued pace-of-play talks come as the average game time during the '17 regular season rose to a new league record of more than three hours, five minutes. Last night’s Wild Card game required three hours, 51 minutes to play, including 45 minutes for the first inning alone.
Manfred, meanwhile, showed some new openness toward potentially mandating expanded protective netting at all MLB ballparks. After initially issuing netting guidelines to clubs in late '15, the league has generally left the matter to teams to develop their own solutions given the unique dimensions of each ballpark. But Manfred yesterday said a firmer mandate could be coming. “I could see a situation in which we do that,” he said.
