Photo: Instagram/mlb
The boys of summer are back. Here's what you can expect on the diamond this season.
Transcript
(Podcast length - 4:45 mins)
1. The Houston Astros are this year's defending champions, and teams are spending a pretty penny to rob them of back-to-back titles. The league does not have a salary cap but a luxury tax. The New York Mets owner Steve Cohen isn't worried about the luxury tax. The Mets are projected to pay roughly $111M in luxury tax fees in 2023, per ESPN's Jeff Passan. That figure is higher than what 10 MLB teams will spend their entire 26-man rosters. WINNING ISN'T CHEAP
2. Food is synonymous with baseball, and this year there are some exciting treats to titillate your taste buds at the ballpark. Like the Texas Rangers' Boomburger, a two-foot burger. (It's the big brother to the Boomstick, a two-foot-long hot dog). The Seattle Mariners boast chapulines or toasted grasshoppers on the menu and cult favorite Din Tai Fung in the ballpark. The New York Mets have a fried donut chicken sandwich with glazed donuts for buns. GET IN MY BELLY
3. MLB is looking to ride the momentum of the wave of the World Baseball Classic, which shattered previous American viewership records for the event. Starting the season off, all 30 teams will play on Opening Day, Thursday, March 30. Teams are rolling out their big-named pitchers, with eight Cy Young Award winners, 21 All-Star hurlers and five pitchers making their team debuts. TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME
Want a sweet moment? Check out this one with Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller finding out he'll be the starting pitcher for opening day. Then there's the prank the New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone pulled over on their top prospect Anthony Volpe.
4. Remember that starting last season, both leagues adopted the designated hitter, which was previously only an American League thing. The change allowed big named players like Bryce Harper, who could not throw due to injury, to play the whole season by only hitting. BATTER UP
5. Now for our last and most technical point, the new rules. There are new rules this year, a major one being the pitch timer. Baseball has a reputation for being a slow game, and this pitch timer reduced minor league games by 25 minutes. The bases will be larger to encourage more stealing (i.e., more excitement). Lastly, there are shift restrictions on the infielders. When trialed in the minor leagues, these shift restrictions "increased batting average and decreased strikeouts in Minors while giving players more opportunity to show off their athleticism." MORE ON THESE RULES HERE
What's a can of corn, where is the all-star game, and why are they called the boys of summer? We have those answers and more in our Major League Baseball FAQ. READ
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