Major League Baseball rules aren’t something handed down on stone tablets from on high, yet some act as if they are, and should be immutable forever.
That clearly isn’t the case and never has been. The game has always evolved and rules have been changed many, many times. The strike zone has been enlarged, shrunk, enlarged again and move. The mound was raised, then lowered. There are many other examples.
In recent years, pace of play has become a thing that MLB officials have worried about; games are much longer than they were a couple of decades ago.