2019 MLB Season: All Star Game and Home Run Derby Getting a Facelift
Entering the 2019 MLB season, baseball is announcing huge changes to its All-Star Game and Home Run Derby. Here’s everything you need to know about those changes.
The All-Star game in baseball has undergone various changes in the past. We’re talking rules like, whichever league wins gets home-field advantage in the World Series. Absurd, right? Well, entering the 2019 MLB season, there are new rules coming to the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby.
Let’s take a close look at these rule changes.
First, it was announced that should the All-Star Game go into extra innings, a runner will begin at second base.
This is a rule that has been tossed around in the past. Last season, MLB implemented the rule in the minor leagues, calling for the last batter in the previous inning to begin the following inning at second base in extra innings.
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Fans weren’t happy with the rule change, telling the Portland Press Herald, “Why stop there? If you want to speed up the games, why not take the best player on each team and let them hit home runs until someone wins?”
The rule does feel kind of cheap, doesn’t it?
However, I do think that the rule will make the All-Star Game more entertaining, but if baseball starts to try to push the rule to be used in regular season games, baseball enthusiasts might revolt.
Then, there’s the new Home Run Derby rule being implemented ahead of the 2019 MLB season. This one isn’t so much of a rule, but rather an incentive.
According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, starting in 2019 the grand prize for winning the Home Run Derby is $1M.
Re-upping for those who missed overnight: A $1M prize for the Home Run Derby winner, a three-batter minimum for pitchers, an ASG Election Day and momentum toward large changes in MLB’s core economics are at the heart of an agreement to be announced today: https://t.co/b7yvvVdxMd
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 14, 2019
The idea is to entice more players to get involved in the event, which many still see as the premier event of any All-Star Game in any American professional sport.
Think about it, Aaron Judge, who won the event in 2017, will make under $700,000 this coming season. Why wouldn’t he enter the event and try to more than double his current salary?
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It should be exciting to see who enters and whether the event becomes more competitive rather than just a leisurely activity being done just for fun.