MLB Finally Expanding Instant Replay

The 2014 MLB season started in Australia last week with two victories for the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The rest of the opening series started on March 30 and 31.

This year the 30 MLB clubs approveded the expansion of the use of instant replay during games, creating new rules that add a little bit more of strategy to the mix.

In their website, MLB explains that managers will have one challenge per game. Every time a manager challenges a play and any portion of the call is overturned, the manager preserves his option to challenge another play during that game.

Managers will only be able to challenge two plays for game.

Umpires can use the instant replay on any reviewable call once the managers have used their challenges or after the beginning of the seventh inning.

Plays like home runs or other boundary calls will be reviewable following the same procedures of last season.

MLB will have a communication location close to home plate at every ballpark. When a challenge or a reviewable play present themselves, the crew chief and at least one of the umpires will a headset with which they will contact the Replay Command Center in New York.

There, MLB umpires will be grouped as Replay Officials and will determine if the call is correct or if it should be overturned. The umpires must have clear and convincing evidence in order to do the last.

Instant replay started to be tried out during Spring Training games.  In the first occasion it was used, it took the umpires a little more than two minutes to go through the process and confirm the call they made was right.

This expansion is something MLB should have implemented a long time ago. MLB executives refused to use technology for years, falling behind sports like basketball and football that have been using it for years now.

As a result of this expansion, baseball will have more right calls, which is the final objective.

Four years ago, in March of 2010, Venezuelan pitcher Armando Galarraga lost a perfect game when umpire Jim Joyce called a runner safe at first base with two outs in the ninth inning. The replay showed the call was wrong.

At first, the call blowed by first-base umpire hurt baseball, keeping a pitcher from getting recognition for one of the hardest achievements of the game.

Later, we realized this play might have been beneficial for the game, being the reason why people in the offices realized it was time to make a proper use of the available technology.

This is still under an adaptation process and it could change depending on the outcome of its implementation this season, which gives it a margin for improvements.

Managers should have more than two challenges, specially in playoff games, when a lot of close plays can define the course of a game and or a series.

Some people might say that these challenges will delay the game even more or that they are getting rid of the human element.

However, I believe this is definitively a plus for the game of baseball. There are other things that make it a long game and there are some calls that cannot be overturned by instant replays.

Challenges will add another element to the strategy during games. Managers will have to know when to use the instant replay, risking losing this privilege in one of the first innings of the game or making a decision and overturning an impactful play at a key moment of the season. A little bit more pressure on the managers’ shoulders.  

Like Commisioner Bud Selig said, the new system will give managers valuable opportunity in potentially game-changing situations.

Besides, it will give fans the chance to see more replays in all the ballparks, since clubs will now be allowed to show all replays on the ballpark scoreboard, regardless of whether the play was reviewed.