Dodgers’ Blake Treinen rages against MLB’s rumored rule changes

Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen is currently on the mend, rehabbing a shoulder injury that could cost him the remainder of the 2022 season. No matter how long the mysterious issue takes to reset itself, the break between outings is apparently long enough that Treinen is worried about the game changing forever while he’s gone.

Though the 2022 season ditched the seven-inning doubleheaders we became accustomed to in 2020/21, the extra-innings rule that emphasized action still remained, starting in the 10th inning. In addition to already-adopted rules, MLB has implemented a pitch clock at the minor-league level, which is favored to be called up to the bigs as soon as next season.

Add in a forthcoming ban on wild infield shifts taking players off the dirt, as well as changes to the size of the bases, and you’ve got a whole bunch of changes intended to make the action on the field more exciting. Then again, baseball isn’t considering anything that will shake the game’s core like six-inning regular-season games or a 100-game season or shaving the damn thing into four quarters.

Nevertheless, these purported changes have left a languishing Treinen … angry.

According to the lockdown reliever, he has next to no interest in learning more about the Triple-A rule set, claiming, “Leave ’em there and get rid of ’em. We don’t need any more changes in baseball.”

Dodgers’ Blake Treinen doesn’t want any more baseball rule changes

Treinen’s main argument centers around “keeping baseball the way it is,” and though he briefly veers into saying that none of the baseball legends he grew up trying to emulate had to deal with rule changes (?), his main argument is that there’s far too much to keep track of these days.

“I’m so sick of everyone trying to put a fingerprint on the game,” Treinen continued. “The fingerprint should be the way you play on the field, the way you treat people in the clubhouse, and the way you manage games.” In essence, Treinen wants to see more owners emphasize competing rather than moving pieces around to try to craft excitement around something other than championship-caliber baseball.

Valid point. The only problem? Mostly everyone other than Treinen seems to … like what’s happening at the minor-league level?

Pirates top prospect/first overall pick Henry Davis was all in on the pitch clock when he spoke to reporters this week, which has shaved off about 20 minutes of dead time per game and sparked urgency.

Davis doesn’t appear to be alone. Though there are surely some dissenters in the mix, by and large players seem to enjoy the changes being implemented across the minors (none of which are drastic/earth-shattering/change the fundamentals of baseball).

The game Treinen teaches his kids may look different than the one he was raised on, but only because he seems intent on making it out to be a drastic departure from the norm.

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