MLB 2020 Rule Changes

According to MLB.com, there are four rule changes for the 2020 MLB season:

Roster Limit: Teams can have up to 26 players through Aug 31st, but can only have 13 pitchers. Roster sizes in September will be cut down to 28 from 40 and can go up to 14 pitchers. This rule will make teams decide to go for an extra bat or arm in the bullpen. This also affects how much they call up rookies or veteran players.

Position Players Pitching: Position players aren’t allowed to pitch unless one of these two scenarios happen: You designate them as a two-way player by having 20 games pitched and 20 games played as a position player or designated hitter (with at least 3 plate appearances a game). This could help or hurt teams since once you designate them as two-way players you can't change them for the whole season. Extra innings, and in any game that a team is winning or losing by 6 or more runs. It probably won’t affect position players that much since 86 of 90 position players pitching abided by this rule.

Three Batter Minimum: A pitcher can’t pitch less than three batters or till the end of the half inning unless they are injured or ill. This will cut down time on pitching changes but changes strategy a bit. Since this affects people who want a certain match up and will probably end the LOOGY (left-handed one out guy).

Injured List: The IL and optioning players to the minors has been increased from 10 days to 15 days for pitchers, while position players still have the 10-day IL. The injured list rule was reduced to 10 days for both position players and pitchers in 2017. Teams have manipulated this rule by rotating relievers in and out of their bullpen, so they would have fresh bullpen arms most of the time. It will also help people to recover better.

The reasoning behind these changes in baseball rules are as follows:

1. Roster size is increasing through Aug 31st, while there is no longer the 40-man roster in September.

2. Position players pitching rule is going to limit how much they pitch, because of the two-way player, teams being up or down by six or more runs, and extra innings scenarios.

3. The three batter minimum rule is reducing how many pitching changes happen and limiting the ability of getting a favorable match.

4. The injured list rule is keeping teams honest about rotating arms out of the bullpen and help pitchers recover better.

Despite all of this, we still don't know what the 2020 MLB season will look like because of COVID-19, but the MLB continues to try to work on a solution for us to get back to the action.