New commish Rob Manfred says shorter MLB season is a possibility

If we’ve gleaned anything about Rob Manfred as he approaches two months in Bud Selig’s commissioner’s chair, it’s that almost any idea is a possibility. He’s wide open to change, it seems, whether that’s the notion of banning defensive shifts that he brought up in January or the shortening of the MLB season.

Manfred addressed the latter Monday, saying it’s certainly a possibility that MLB could shorten its season, but it’s not a priority to him at the moment.

He told ESPN’s Darren Rovell:

“I don’t think length of season is a topic that can’t ever be discussed,” Manfred said. “I don’t think it would be impossible to go back to 154 [games].

“We already have some of our record books which reflect a 154-game season and obviously some of it reflects a 162-game season,” Manfred said. “So there’s some natural flexibility there. But if anyone suggests to go to something like 110 games, then there’s a real problem. That will throw all our numbers out of whack.”

MLB moved from 154-game seasons to its current 162-game format in the early 1960s. Shortening the season might be beneficial to players, considering baseball’s grueling schedule. But the more games a team plays, the more money it stands to make from tickets, concessions and advertising. 

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At least for the time being, Manfred’s focus isn’t the length of the season but the length of games. The league introduced a number of pace-of-play rule changes Friday in hopes of reducing the average length of a game, which crept above three hours for the first time in 2014.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz