Report: MLB 'highly unlikely' to use pitch clock during 2015 season

Major League Baseball is "highly unlikely" to begin using a 20-second pitch clock during the 2015 season, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports reports. The league tested

Major League Baseball is "highly unlikely" to begin using a 20-second pitch clock during the 2015 season, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports reports.

The league tested several pace of game rules during the Arizona Fall League, including a pitch clock and requiring a batter to remain in the batter's box.

Morosi also reports that there are several on-field rules that will likely be discussed next week during the MLB owners meeting in Arizona.

From Fox Sports:

MLB officials have acknowledged a need to quicken the pace of games, and the AFL (a league for top prospects) was an ideal proving ground.

However, sources say the pitch clock has insufficient support among MLB and the MLB Players Association to be implemented in 2015.

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According to Morosi, owners could also look at "a rule stipulating that runners must slide directly into second base on double plays, as opposed to deviating from their paths with a takeout slide," and a rule that would cut down the time a manager has to tell an umpire he wants to challenge a call.

In October, an AFL game that used the pace of game rules, took just two hours and 14 minutes to complete. In September, MLB announced it had created a committee to look at the pace of the game after contests during the 2014 regular season took just over three hours to complete, 20 minutes more than games played 11 seasons ago.

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