Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said rule changes to help pace of play will be announced before spring training games begin.
Manfred did not specify what the new rules would be while addressing reporters during MLB's media day at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"There are going to be rule changes with respect to pace of play for the 2018 season," Manfred said. "You'll know about those rule changes before we start playing spring training games. One way or the other, those changes are going to be as a result of an agreement with the MLBPA. It's either going to be a specific agreement on specific rule changes or they'll be rule changes that we put in place as a result of the provision in the basic agreement that allows us to make that change.
"I don't see anything about those pace-of-play discussions that should be a labor relations negative over the long haul. I really don't. We have gone out of our way to solicit player input. We've delayed taking any action. We've made it clear from the very, very beginning that our strong preference was to have an agreement with the players, and in fact we have significantly altered our substantive positions based on input we've had from players. That's the bargaining process. It really shouldn't be a negative."
Any rules changes require the approval of MLB owners, who held their quarterly meetings from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in Beverly Hills, California. Spring training games are scheduled to begin Feb. 23 in Florida and Arizona.
In January, the Major League Baseball Players Association rejected MLB's proposal to add a 20-second pitch clock.
Although players agree with ownership and the commissioner's office that the pace of games needs to be addressed, they have argued that games can be shortened through revisions in instant replay, stricter monitoring of the down time between innings and other remedies that don't require a clock, a source said.