Major League Baseball survived an ugly labor battle this winter over the sport’s economics with only minor cosmetic damage to its image. Now comes a tougher and more emotional fight with even higher stakes: repairing a game that barely resembles the one that once dominated the American sports landscape.

The debate over how to tweak—or blow up—portions of baseball’s sacred rulebook to combat its fading appeal with fans is the next legacy-defining challenge for MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. 

The team owners and players’ union resolved the recent 99-day lockout in time to preserve the full 2022 schedule, averting a disastrous outcome. With no games missed, the dents and scratches to the baseball’s reputation should buff out when Chicago Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks throws the first pitch of 2022 on Thursday afternoon, only a week later than planned.

With the new collective bargaining agreement ratified and the bitterness from the lockout waning, Manfred must now confront the more public part of baseball’s problems: a plodding pace, a dearth of action and an increasingly apathetic audience, particularly among young generations. Games last longer and move slower than at any point in history. Less happens during that time than ever before. Attendance and television ratings continue to sink.

Five years of labor peace gives Manfred the opportunity to finally address the issues that matter most to the consumers who fund the $10 billion industry he stewards, which now stands at a crossroad. His ability to inject excitement into the on-field product will determine whether baseball will reclaim its place in the national consciousness–or risk sliding into irrelevance. 

“We’re not talking about changing the game,” Manfred said in an interview this week. “What we’re talking about is restoring the game to how it was played historically and in a way that our fans have traditionally embraced.” 

Manfred had hoped all of this would’ve been fixed already. He has talked for years about baseball’s pace-of-play crisis, frequently citing it as a top priority. Yet the trouble persists, and Manfred admits, “I wish we would have made more progress sooner.” 

MLB didn’t shut down for more than three months this offseason over rules. The feud instead revolved around esoteric economic concepts like luxury-tax thresholds, direct draft-pick compensation and the disbursement of funds from a pre-arbitration performance-based bonus pool.  

Still, baseball will immediately look a bit different in 2022. National League clubs will deploy the designated hitter on a permanent basis after a trial run during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. The playoffs will expand from 10 teams to 12. 

The new “Shohei Ohtani Rule” allows pitchers who bat for themselves–like the Los Angeles Angels’ two-way phenom–to stay in the lineup as the DH after leaving the mound.

And instead of putting down fingers, catchers will be able to use an electronic wristband to relay signals directly to pitchers through a listening device. The technology should prevent another Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal and improve the pace of play.

These will serve as an appetizer for more substantial changes to come. The new CBA gives Manfred the right to implement rule changes with 45 days of notice, significantly streamlining the process and demonstrating the urgency of the situation. At least two big ones appear likely to arrive in 2023 after further testing in the minors: the addition of a pitch clock and a restriction on defensive shifts. 

Restrictions on defensive shifts are likely to arrive next season.

Photo: David Zalubowski/Associated Press

Manfred sees the innovations as incremental change, which he defines as change that “improves the game, attracts new people to it, without alienating your core fans.” 

“I don’t think anything that we’re suggesting is radical, either in the sense that it fundamentally alters the nature of the sport or presents an undue risk that we’re going to have unexpected outcomes,” Manfred said. 

Manfred assumed his post in 2015 vowing to reverse some of the trends beginning to cause alarm among league executives. So far, his efforts have failed, with many of the markers worsening on his watch.

The average nine-inning game took 2:56 to complete in Manfred’s first season at the helm. That figure ballooned to a record 3:10 in 2021, the additional 14 minutes filled with little other than a bunch of adult men standing around chewing bubble gum and scratching themselves. 

Beyond the sheer length, Manfred also expressed concern about the rapid deterioration of baseball’s aesthetics, transforming the game into something almost unrecognizable to longtime observers. Instead of dazzling athleticism, chess matches between managers and memorable pitchers’ duels, the modern version of baseball largely consists of the pitcher and catcher playing catch, only occasionally interrupted by a ball flying over the fence.

More than 35% of plate appearances last season ended in a strikeout, walk or home run, and the leaguewide batting average sank to .244, the lowest in decades. Manfred said MLB’s internal research shows that fans want to “emphasize the great things that our players do beyond striking people out and hitting home runs.”

Meanwhile, starting pitchers–the players Manfred described as “our biggest stars in a lot of ways”–lasted just five innings per outing, replaced by an endless parade of largely anonymous relievers. In the postseason, when interest in baseball peaks, that number dropped to under four innings per start. Manfred said, “I don’t think less emphasis on great starting pitching is necessarily a good thing for us.” 

The rise of data analytics prompted this evolution, driven by efficiency-obsessed front offices dissecting every minute aspect of baseball in an unending quest to find the tiniest advantages around the margins. Their commitment to unlocking baseball’s mysteries undoubtedly made the game smarter. The changes that stemmed from their work didn’t necessarily make the game better as an entertainment product.

“It is high time that we respond to those changes,” Manfred said.

Commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledges that baseball needs to make some changes.

Photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images

Tests in the minor leagues of these proposed tweaks went well. The pitch clock in Low-A West last season led to a reduction in average game time of more than 20 minutes. It also led to fewer strikeouts and more balls in play, a phenomenon likely caused by the decreased velocity associated with forcing pitchers to work quicker. 

The shift ban would require teams to station two infielders on each side of second base, with all of them standing on the dirt. This would incentivize contact with more batted balls turning into hits, as well as allowing for more diving plays in the field.

“Because of the experimenting that we have done in the minor leagues, we’re a lot more certain as to the outcomes that we’re going to get from these rule changes,” Manfred said.

Other sports have shown more willingness to make frequent rule changes solely for the sake of entertainment. Baseball has been more reluctant to open up the hood and tinker, in large part because, “The history and tradition in our game is a little different,” Manfred said.

Nonetheless, Manfred could have begun this process earlier. The previous CBA allowed him to change rules with one year of notice. He consistently declined to exercise that power without an agreement with the players’ union that never materialized. Even now, Manfred insists he wants “meaningful player input on any and all of these changes,” noting that, “It will have an impact on my thinking if I get that input.”

Manfred spent spring training traveling around Florida and Arizona meeting with players, after promising to mend his fractured relationship with them in the wake of the lockout. Rule changes have emerged as a frequent topic of conversation.

Now it is up to Manfred to execute them and ensure they have the desired effect. The future of baseball might be at stake. 

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com