ORLANDO, Fla. — Don’t look for a National League designated hitter this year or for new anti-tanking rules in June’s amateur draft.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday that management is focused on pace-of-game changes for 2019 and bolder ideas proposed by the players’ association are too complex to be put in place for this season.
Speaking Friday after an owners’ meeting, Manfred felt encouraged the union responded to management’s proposal for a pitch clock and a three-batter minimum for a relief pitcher unless an inning ends.
Baseball is in its third year of a five-year labor deal, one in which the free-agent market has slowed considerably – even with premier players available such as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.
Management would discuss larger changes as part of a deal for a new collective bargaining agreement extending beyond December 2021.
INDIANS: All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor will miss spring training camp – and maybe the start of the season – with a strained right calf.
Lindor recently got hurt while working out in Orlando, Florida. He was checked Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic and team physician Mark Shickendantz confirmed a moderate sprain.
ANGELS: A person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press that reliever Daniel Hudson has agreed to a minor-league deal with the Angels.
GIANTS: Bryce Harper and the Giants met in Las Vegas this week, and new San Francisco baseball operations chief Farhan Zaidi said the sides had mutual interest.
Zaidi, the club’s new president of baseball operations, would not say whether an offer was extended to the star outfielder. The Giants still hope to add two outfielders.
METS: Infielder Danny Espinosa and the Mets agreed to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
BREWERS: Right-hander Josh Tomlin agreed to a minor league contract with the Brewers, who hope he can follow Wade Miley’s example of earning a job as a nonroster player and becoming part of their starting rotation.
ARBITRATION: Pitcher Trevor Bauer has gone to salary arbitration with the Cleveland Indians for the second straight year.
Relievers Ryan Tepera of Toronto and Kyle Barraclough of Washington lost their cases, leaving the sides tied 3-3 with six possible decisions remaining.
LONDON: Major League Baseball is considering one of two matchups for its 2020 series in London: New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals or Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals.
MLB’s first games in Britain are scheduled for this summer, when the World Series champion Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees at London’s Olympic Stadium on June 29-30. The venue was built for the 2012 Olympics and reconfigured for the Premier League club West Ham United.
Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement calls for a 2020 opener in Asia, April games in Mexico, May games in Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic and June games in Britain.
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