Rick White has been president of the Atlantic League, an independent professional baseball league, for more than five years and has already seen Major League Baseball adopt one major rule from his league. Now, MLB is looking to do the same thing with a few other potential rules.
Before the 2017 season began, MLB announced changes to the way an intentional walk would occur. Previously, a pitcher would have to throw four balls before the batter would go to first base. But under the current rules, the manager just needs to tell the plate umpire that the team wants to intentionally walk the batter and the batter automatically gets first base.
The intentional walk rule had been in place in the Atlantic League for two seasons before MLB decided to adopt it and add it to its own rule book. The MLB will again attempt to do something similar in a partnership with the Atlantic League this upcoming season.
