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Rob Manfred not considering NL DH, aims to continue speeding up the game

Mark Townsend
·Yahoo Sports Contributor
(AP)
(AP)

As commissioner Rob Manfred's first season in charge nears its end, we're getting some idea of what will be on his agenda during the upcoming offseason.

Speaking at the Sports Diversity & Inclusion Symposium on Wednesday afternoon, Manfred made two points perfectly clear. First, he doesn’t see any need to expand the designated hitter to the National League, which is a topic many were hoping he'd take on head-on as commissioner. Second, despite achieving notable success with his new pace of play measures, Manfred says there's room for further adjustments to continue bringing down the average time of MLB games.

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On the designated hitter matter, Manfred's assertion isn't a huge revelation. He said at the beginning of his tenure in January that he was open-minded to big changes, but indicated over the summer that giving each league a separate identity with its own quirks was good for the game.

“I would leave the DH the way it is,” Manfred said. “I always have thought that the variation between the two leagues is a good thing for the game, generally. It promotes debate among fans, and I’m a big believer that debate is a good thing for baseball. Just like debate’s a good thing for your business.

“When people are talking about the game, it’s good.”

He's right about the debating. Discussion about the DH might be the most polarizing topic among potential on-field changes. On one side, you have the purists, who would prefer the game to be DH-free on both sides and are obviously strongly against its expansion to the NL. Then you have the new school fans who want players paid to hit doing the hitting, while the pitchers stick strictly to the pitching.

There are arguments to be made both ways that make sense and keep the game interesting. It's a debate that goes round and round in circles, and that wouldn't change regardless of Manfred's position. That he's now made his position known removes the urgency. It's simply not happening any time soon.

Of greater concern to Manfred is the pace of MLB games. After the average time of nine-inning games rose to 3 hours, 2 minutes in 2014, measures such as installing clocks to time between-innings breaks and pitching changes were instituted to keep games moving at a better pace. Those changes saw six minutes shaved off the average of nine-inning games this season. That's right in line with Manfred's vision, but he believes more can be done, including limiting pitching change and mound visits.

''You will see a continuing evolution of our rules in order to speed the game,'' Manfred said to the audience at Citi Field. ''Things like visits to the mound, both catcher and manager visits. It's always been astounding to me exactly what wisdom is imparted in those visits, with all due respect to the great managers.''

"'We've actually talked about more fundamental changes,'' Manfred said. ''Pitching changes are a huge part of the length of the game - limiting the number or requiring a pitcher to pitch to at least two batters, something like that.''

The issue of excessive pitching changes and mound meetings has come under the microscope in September. With expanded rosters, managers have more options and more leeway to mix and match pitchers to create better matchups. That leads to more changes, sometimes up to three or four in an inning, and more discussion, which effectively halts the game and destroys the pace.

It's something that absolutely needs to be addressed if Manfred hopes to trim more time off the average. Such changes would require the approval of the player's union, of course, but they will clearly be pushed for this coming offseason.

Fans will also clamor for changes to the playoff seeding. Manfred has mentioned being open to that as well. He'll no doubt have a lot on his plate this winter, and we appreciate him being forthcoming with his agenda.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!