MLB commissioner would consider reducing season to 154 games

New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday that he would contemplate shortening the league’s regular season if there was widespread interest in the idea, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com.

“I don’t think length of season is a topic that can’t ever be discussed,” Manfred told Rovell. “I don’t think it would be impossible to go back to 154 [games].”

Major League Baseball initially played a regular season comprised of 154 games, but in 1961, the American League moved to a 162-game schedule before the National League followed suit a year later. The league’s regular season has remained the same length ever since.

“We already have some of our record books, which reflect a 154-game season,” Manfred said, “and obviously some of it reflects a 162-game season. So there’s some natural flexibility there. But if anyone suggests to go to something like 110 games, then there’s a real problem.”

Although Manfred indicated a willingness to discuss the topic, he did acknowledge that the length of MLB’s regular season isn’t a top priority at the moment. According to Rovell, he is more concerned with the new pace of play rules that MLB announced last week. The new rules will seek to reduce the average length of games, which clocked in at just over three hours in 2014.

Calls for a shorter regular season have increased in recent years, with the grueling nature of a 162-game schedule growing more apparent each season. In 2014, fewer than nine percent of all position players appeared in at least 150 games, according to the Wall Street Journal, the lowest in MLB history.

Any changes to the length of the MLB schedule will have to be collectively bargained with the Major League Baseball Players Association because the rules affect the working conditions of the players and could reduce the number of service days in a season. For that reason, any shortening of MLB’s regular season schedule likely remains at least a couple years away.