Until May 1st, rosters will be increased from 26 players to 28. One would assume this is mainly to allow teams to stock a couple extra arms considering that some starters may not be fully stretched out the first few weeks of the season.
The rule that people love to hate is back! In extra innings, teams will place a runner on second at the beginning of each half inning. The idea being that having a "ghost runner" should cut down on lengthy extra inning games. In theory.
Purists that loathe the ghost runner can take solace in the fact that MLB will be going back to full nine-inning doubleheaders - unlike the seven innings format the league employed during the 2020 season.
Otherwise known as the Shohei Ohtani Rule. Now that there's a universal DH, the league had to make an adjustment to not adversely affect one of the best players in baseball and the 2021 AL MVP. Throughout the current CBA, starting pitchers who are included in the batting order can remain in the order even once they're done pitching.
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