MLB To Test New Extra-Inning Runner Rule In Rookie Leagues

Major League Baseball is set to test out a new, controversial rule change on rookie-level minor league teams this season.

MLB To Test New 10th-Inning Rule In Rookie Leagues

In the hopes of shortening games, MLB plans to automatically place a runner on second base beginning in the 10th inning in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and Arizona League.

“Let’s see what it looks like,” Joe Torre, the longtime major league manager who’s now MLB’s Chief Baseball Officer, said, via 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.

“It’s baseball. I’m just trying to get back to that, where this is the game that people come to watch. It doesn’t mean you’re going to score. You’re just trying to play baseball.”

Torre stressed that the change is on a trial basis designed to allow officials to evaluate in-game consequences.

Nevertheless, the rule, which has not yet been officially instituted, has already irked — and will surely continue to anger — many baseball traditionalists.

“What really initiated it is sitting in the dugout in the 15th inning and realizing everybody is going to the plate trying to hit a home run and everyone is trying to end the game themselves,” Torre said. “I don’t know what inning is the right inning. Maybe the 11th or 12th inning. But there are a number of reasons.”

Due to the extremely divisive nature of the rule, it will likely not become part of major league play until several years from now, since it requires an overwhelming amount of player support.