The Kansas City Royals had the second-fastest average time of game in all of Major League Baseball last season and the fastest in the American League. Their average time of three hours, two minutes was six minutes faster than the league average and 18 minutes faster than the team with the slowest games in the AL, the Boston Red Sox.
Still, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made headlines recently when discussing possible new pace of play initiatives for the 2018 season. In an Associated Press article, Manfred was quoted as saying, “My preferred path is a negotiated agreement with the players, but if we can’t get an agreement we are going to have rule changes in 2018 one way or the other.