Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached a tentative agreement to return the ghost runner to extras in the 2022 season, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. In addition, they have agreed to expand their active rosters from 26 to 28 players this season through May 1st. The league’s 30 owners are due to vote next week to formally ratify the terms, but Sherman writes that only a simple majority is required and the provisions aren’t expected to pass any problems.
Neither comes as much of a surprise, as reports surfaced a couple of weeks ago that both were under review. The lockout extended into the second week of March, shortening the spring training schedule by two weeks, even though the start of the regular season was pushed back eight days. The concern is that the shortened build-up period may not give players enough time to prepare for a typical regular season workload. By adding a couple of players early on and limiting opportunities for marathon games, the league and union will give managers more flexibility in controlling game time.
Sherman adds that there will be no caps on the number of pitchers in April. MLB is setting a limit of 13 pitchers this year. This rule change was originally scheduled to go into effect in 2020, but MLB has canceled it in each of the last two seasons due to concerns about overworking the hands when teams dealt with the possibility of COVID-19 outbreaks on their rosters. This will eventually become a problem for clubs, but they will have additional leeway during the first two weeks of the season.
The return of the extra innings has become a more visible event for the fans. It was first implemented in 2020 as part of the pandemic protocols. There is no doubt that the rule actually helped prevent marathon games. In either of the last two seasons, there has only been one MLB game that went over thirteen innings; in 2019 alone, there were 23 such games. However, this rule, as expected, caused controversy among fans, many of whom consider placing a free runner at second base to start extras useless.
Sherman writes that the ghost runner rule was only approved for 2022, but it won’t be a surprise if the league and union revert back to it in the future. The other major pandemic rule change on the field, the seven-inning doubleheader, will not be returning this year.
One rule that will be in place all the time is designated hitter modification, though it only seems to affect one player. If a team uses the same player as both the day’s starting pitcher and their DH, he may remain in the game as a hitter even after he has been kicked off the mound. This is obviously a condition meant for the Angels to be able to Shohei Otani in the composition of deep games he starts.