Long envious of the headline-grabbing nature of other major sports’ accelerated free agency periods, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently sought to generate some of his own hype. But just like so many other times he’s been the center of attention, this latest attempt at finding ways to broaden baseball’s appeal to non-baseball fans went over like a lead balloon. Though this baffling idea was first mentioned in late October, it gained a good bit of online notoriety thanks to a Jayson Stark column in The Athletic.
“There are a variety of (rule change ideas) that are being talked about out there,” Manfred told John Ourand on The Varsity podcast.