2019 Major League Baseball

The 2019 Major League Baseball season was the twentieth season in which the two major leagues, the National League and the American League, are consolidated into a single entity under the authority of the Commissioner, Rob Manfred.

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The 2019 Major League Baseball season opened on March 20th with a two-game series between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. After that, on March 28th, all 30 teams were active for the official stateside launch of the season. The season also featured the first-ever regular season games to be played in Europe, with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees meeting in London, England on June 29th and 30th.

As has now become an annual tradition, in January MLB proposed some rule changes for the upcoming season, although these needed agreement from the Players' Association. Those changes included the long talked-about introduction of a pitch clock in order to speed up the pace of play, and changes to the use of the disabled list to make it less flexible. This last move was to counter a recent tendency of teams to bloat their bullpen by using the disabled list creatively in order to multiply the number of relievers available on any particular day; by reverting the minimum stay to 15 days instead of 10 and also lengthening the minimum time before a player can be called up after being sent to the minor leagues on option, the hope was to restrain these shenanigans and force teams to use a more stable roster. The Players Association came back with its own list of proposals, including universal usage of the designated hitter and forcing a three batters faced minimum per pitcher (barring injury). Instead of proceeding immediately with such changes, MLB reached an agreement with the independent Atlantic League on March 8th for that circuit to test out some of these proposals and other even more radical ones, such as moving back the pitcher's mound by two feet, using larger bases, limiting defensive shifts and implementing the three batters minimum rule for relief pitchers. Also being tested out should have been the use of MLB's PITCHf/x strike zone system as a substitute for rulings on balls and strikes by the home plate umpire, although this was delayed until mid-season because of issues with the underlying technology.

The actual rule changes for the major leagues were announced on March 14th. While the idea of a pitch clock was dropped, other measures adopted included: lowering the number of mound visits from six to five, after the rule was successfully introduced in 2018; a shorter break between innings; making the July 31st trading deadline a hard one, with no trades allowed for the two remaining months of the season; a shift in procedure for nominating starters in the All-Star Game and additional bonuses for participants in the Home Run Derby; beginning in 2020, a clear roster limit, with 26 during the first five months and 28 for September, with all teams being required to respect the limits; and a three-batter minimum for relief pitchers, also starting in 2020.

In a development similar to what had gone on the previous off-season, the free agent market was again slow, with the the two biggest names, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, still unsigned as February began. At age 26, both would have been the object of bidding wars in past years; they represented just the tip of the iceberg, though, as some 90 free agents were also still looking for jobs. A lot of the problem seemed to come from top-tier clubs who had been driving the market in the past but were now reluctant to make large offers, fearful of a combination of luxury tax punishments and of being stuck with large, unproductive contracts a few years down the road. The controversy about there being a number of teams who were not really interested in competing also came up again, with experts considering that 7 teams were in full rebuilding mode, and 6 others sputtering without making any clear attempt to improve their on-field product beyond achieving minimal respectability. Both Harper and Machado signed large contracts after the opening of camp, but others were not so lucky, most prominently pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel who had to wait until the amateur draft was held in early June to be signed by a team.

Among the early trends of the season were a clear drop in attendance across the board, and a continued move towards a style of play dominated by home runs and strikeouts. Home run totals were completely unprecedented: there were 1,135 homers hit during May, the most hit in a month in major league history, displacing August of 2017, when there were 1,119. There had also been more homers hit in April than ever before that month, although this was skewed by the fact there were also more games played in April than ever. June saw another homer record be set, with 1,142 being hit. On September 11th, the 6,106th homer of the year was hit, topping the former record of 6,105 set in 2017. Already the record for most homers in a season by a team had been broken by both the Minnesota Twins and Yankees, while the Los Angeles Dodgers had broken the National League mark. The Yankees had also set the monthly record in August. On September 24th, it was the strikeout record's turn to fall, as the 41,208th K of the year overtook the mark set the previous season. It was the third straight season over 40,000, a total that had never been reached before 2017. The polarization of teams was extremely clear, as a record-breaking four teams recorded 100 or more wins, while a record-tying four more had 100 or more losses. The final totals were 6,776 homers, an 11% increase over the previous high mark, and 42,823 strikeouts. Measures to speed up pace of play were not obviously successful either, as the average game time was 3:05:35, the longest ever.

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2019 Major League Baseball

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