MLB competition committee passes two new rule changes for 2025.
Major League Baseball's competition committee has unanimously passed two minor on-field rule changes for the 2025 season, reports Evan Drellich of The Athletic.
MLB's competition committee is composed of six owners, four player representatives, and one umpire.
The owner majority essentially gives the league unilateral power to make on-field rule adjustments.
That has been to the players' consternation in the past, though these changes are so marginal that they didn't encounter opposition.
The Changes
The first involves defensive positioning, while the other relates to an infrequent baserunning scenario.
Regarding the defense, the rule change now allows a hitting team to accept an awarded base if a defensive player violates the shift ban and is the first player to field a batted ball.
Teams are required to keep two infielders on either side of the second base bag. Previously, if a fielder violated the shift ban - likely a middle infielder starting on the opposite side of the base - the hitting team could either take an automatic ball or accept the result of the play.
They'll now be able to take the free base or the play result. If they accept the free base, any runners would move up one base.
The fielder will be charged with an error, while the hitter will not be credited with an at-bat.
The change is designed to increase the penalty for teams violating the shift ban.
The league felt that teams could push fielders slightly beyond the bag in hopes of getting away with a violation.
The rationale would be that if the violation went unnoticed by umpires and opposing teams, the shift could result in an out.
If the violation were detected, the automatic ball was unlikely to be that costly. Drellich notes that there were two shift violations that resulted in an automatic ball last season. Those would be errors under the new rule.
The baserunning rule only comes into play in very specific circumstances.
If a player deliberately overruns the second or third base bag to beat out a force play, a longstanding rule is that the runner is to be called out for abandonment.
Players are only really incentivized to do this if they're the trail runner when there was a runner on third base with two outs.
If they feel they'd be forced out if they slow down or slide, they may instead run through the bag.
While they'd likely be tagged out a second or two later, negating the force play would allow the runner who'd been on third base to score.
Now, the replay official can determine whether the runner from third base touched home plate before the trail runner officially abandoned the bag.
That's defined as having both feet on the ground beyond the base. If the lead runner had not scored by then, the run will not count.
The rule also includes an adjustment to replay review.
Previously, if the umpire had incorrectly called the trail runner out on the initial force play, a successful challenge by the hitting team would call the runner safe even if the runner had gone through the bag.
In that scenario, the replay official can now call the runner out by abandonment.
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