With the professional baseball season underway, there are a lot of new changes to baseball that people are interested to see. Before the beginning of the season, the MLB went into a lockout, which means the players union and Major League Baseball needed to come up with a new set of rules and agreements for each player. The MLB lockout lasted for 99 days and no one thought there was going to be an end in sight.
Due to the lockout, the MLB also decided to change some of the rules implemented in baseball, with one of the biggest rules being a universal designated hitter (DH). A universal DH means that each team will get a designated hitter in both the National and American League. This was a big step for the MLB because it was something that needed to be done for a while and it will really change how the game is played.
Another big rule that they changed was there were not going to be any defensive shifts allowed anymore. This was a big rule change that sadly won’t take place until next year. The shift allowed the defense to move around the field in places they might not usually play. For instance, if a lefty batter came up that was a heavy pull hitter, then the third baseman would play in the outfield between first and second. This is a big change because it was ruining some players' careers because they couldn’t hit to the other side.
With all that being said, what can we expect from this season? Well to start there are a lot of new faces in a lot of new places,the two biggest ones being Max Scherzer to the Mets and Freddy Freeman to the Dodgers. These were two big signings for each team, making their cases stronger for being contenders.
There are also new teams that could potentially be contenders. One of those teams is the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have a very young core and only got better during the offseason. One team that has been disappointing to watch this year so far is the Texas Rangers. This offseason they spent a lot of money to get Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. For the Rangers they play the middle infield and they were supposed to help the Rangers win. So far, however, the Rangers have started off 2-7 and have not been producing much offensively. There is still a long season ahead so hopefully we will see a turn around for the Texas Rangers.
Overall, there are a lot of things to be excited about for the season this year. There are many teams that have a real chance at winning the World Series, so it will be interesting to see who can win it.