ARLINGTON, Texas — Major League Baseball would consider limiting 26-man rosters to 12 pitchers after 2024 in an attempt to incentivize teams to prioritize starting pitching, commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday before Game 1 of the World Series.
“Historically, starting pitchers have been some of the biggest stars in the game, and the way that pitching is being used right now has caused a diminution of the star quality for some of our starters,” he told a small group of writers. He added, “I think that there’s a lot of fans who feel like the change from ‘Let’s see what today’s pitching matchup is’ to ‘Who’s the opener today?’ has not been positive.”
Starting pitchers were responsible for 67.84% of innings in 1998; beginning in 2016, that figure has dropped nearly every year. It sat at 57.94% in ’19, at which point the league intended to limit rostered pitchers to 13 to encourage teams to use each pitcher for longer. It delayed the implementation of that rule until ’22 because of the pandemic, but there has been little improvement: Starters accounted for 57.98% of innings this year.
“I don’t think it’s had the desired effect,” Manfred said. “There are a few numbers smaller than 13.” With a smile, he acknowledged that 12 would be the next step but said he would wait until at least 2024 to make the issue a priority with the competition committee, which would then make a recommendation to the league and the players’ association, who would vote.
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He praised the players for adapting to the new rules put in place for 2023 to improve pace of play, such as a pitch clock, limitations on pitcher step-offs and larger bases, and said, “I think it’s important to kind of let things settle a little bit more.” He said that the competition committee “is thinking about ’24 as kind of [a period of] adjustments as opposed to a dramatic change.”
Manfred reiterated that he believes the new rules have been a resounding success. He said he is not considering a change to the playoff format, which sees the four top seeds earn byes while the lower seeds play a three-game wild card series, even though this year it produced a World Series featuring one No. 5 seed and one No. 6 seed.
“I think we’re going to have a great World Series,” he said. “We had two great League Championship Series. My own view on this is that our teams play really hard all year long to get into the playoffs, but one of the greatest things about the playoffs in baseball is [that] anybody can win. And it’s about the competition that takes place in the postseason. And I don’t think what happened this year is all that out of line with history. I think since 1980 there’s been I don’t know how many 100-win teams—only 11% of those teams won the World Series. That’s kind of how baseball playoffs are, and frankly, how I think they should be.”
He did acknowledge that he has heard the grumbling from some fans and writers, predominantly located in the markets of the No. 1 seeds who got knocked out.
“All I can say about consternation, because it’s kind of a constant in our game, is that it will at least motivate a conversation about whether we have it right,” he said. “I’m sure that conversation will take place [after] the postseason. Enough has been written and said that we have to think about it and talk about it. But again, my own view is that the format serves its purpose.”
