Report: MLB to announce pace of play rule changes on Friday

MLB established a committee towards the end of the 2014 season to come up with creative ways to speed up the game and it appears they’ve done their job.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting that the league will announce changes to the pace of play rules on Friday. According to Rosenthal here are the three points of emphasis:

1. Managers must challenge replays from dugout. 2. Batters must keep one foot in box unless an established exception occurs . . .

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 20, 2015

3. Play to resume promptly once broadcast returns from commercial break.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 20, 2015

With average game times last season reaching three hours and eight minutes— the first time an average game in a season exceeded three hours — these reasonable tweaks should help shave off a few minutes from each game.

MLB experimented with these initiatives in the Arizona Fall League and was successful in shortening games.

Absent from the list is the 20-second pitch-clock that will be tested in Double-A and Triple-A this season. We know new Chicago Cubs ace Jon Lester will be happy to hear that.

The timing of the announcement is nice too. Now the players, managers, and umpires will have all of spring training to adjust to the changes at hand.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr