Royals GM J.J. Picollo Has Surprising Take On MLB Rule Changes
Kansas City's GM appeared on The Daily Tip to offer up his thoughts
By Lucy Burdge – Feb 27, 2023, 7:31pm
It might still only be Spring Training, but it was a historic weekend in Major League Baseball when the new rules for the season were implemented into games. As we finally got to see them in action, it quickly became clear it will take some time for all of us to get used to them. To get his reaction to the rule changes, The Daily Tip spoke with Royals GM J.J. Picollo, who likes what he's seen so far.
“I definitely like them,” Picollo said of the rules. “We've played three games and all three games have been under two hours and thirty minutes. I think, more importantly, they've been clean games. The game is moving well, the defense is playing well. So I think there is some residual effects to speeding the game up, which will make our game a better game. So I am in favor of the rules. I know we're going to go through some funky situations, like we did the other day with the Braves and (Red) Sox, but that's why we're doing it in spring training and eventually everybody will get used to them and probably won't even notice them a month or two into the season.”
Picollo also spoke about how he sees bigger bases and the elimination of the shift as the two rule changes that will benefit t he Royals the most this season. Hear him discuss that and more with Chelsa Messinger and Michael Jenkins in the video above!