As spring training games begin on Friday, players and coaches are going to get their first taste of playing games with the new rules. The pitch clock, shift ban and pickoff limits are all among the rules that major leaguers have never had to play with before.
While MLB is hoping that these rules will help the game long-term, there are sure to be growing pains. Padres third baseman Manny Machado predicted players will be frustrated with umpires by how these rules are enforced.
“You’re going to have some players who are going to be freakin’ angry and pissed off,” he told Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports. “You’re going to have players pissed off at the umpires who are just following the rules. We’re going to be seeing some crazy [expletive] for sure.”
These rule changes are among the most extreme that MLB has made under commissioner Rob Manfred, and Machado acknowledged that the older players may be more resistant to the new rules at first.
However, Machado is hoping that the league will be flexible to the players’ concerns once they get a feel for how the games have changed.
“Some of us older players, we don’t like change too much. We earned the right to be who we are. Now, there’s going to have to be a lot of adjustments,” Machado said. “MLB is going to have to be the ones to make adjustments on the fly if things aren’t working. If they do that, then I think everybody will be ok with it. But they’re going to have to be lenient and tweak some things.”
The Padres third baseman believes MLB needs to make the rule implementations “as simple as possible” so older players are more comfortable.
