TORONTO — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday he’s encouraged by pace-of-play changes that have limited mound visits and reduced the time between innings at major league games this season.

Speaking in Toronto before the Blue Jays hosted the Boston Red Sox, Manfred said the new rules have sped up games without any disruption.

“Whenever you change a rule in baseball, people predict all sorts of dire outcomes, and we have avoided even the smallest of incidents related either to the mound visit rule or the shorter inning breaks,” Manfred said. “Secondly, I’m positive about them because they’ve been effective. We are way down in terms of mound visits, I think down about 50 percent, and our inning breaks are significantly shorter. I take both of those as positives in an ongoing effort to make sure that we’re producing an entertainment product with as little dead time as possible.”

Manfred called himself “a proponent” of the pitch clocks currently in use in the minor leagues, but said he was “not in a position where where I’m going to say for certain whether or not we’re going to have pitch clocks at the big league level.”

ROYALS: Kansas City activated All-Star catcher Salvador Perez and outfielder Alex Gordon from the disabled list and put them in the lineup for Tuesday night’s series opener against the Brewers.

Perez had been out all season after straining a ligament in his left knee. Gordon tore the labrum in his left hip on April 9.

YANKEES: The team acquired 26-year-old pitcher A.J. Cole from the Nationals for $75,000, hoping the once-promising righty can find his rhythm in a new place.

WHITE SOX: The team placed outfielder Avisail Garcia on the 10-day disabled list because of a strained right hamstring.

NATIONALS: Washington put right-handed reliever Shawn Kelley on the 10-day DL because of ulnar nerve irritation in his pitching elbow.

Copy the Story Link