MLB makes change on transfer play rule

BALTIMORE -- The big news around baseball on Friday was the announced changes in interpreting the transfer play rule, a new facet of the game this season of which the Orioles have seen plenty in the opening month.

Major League Baseball's Playing Rules Committee's determination is that an out has occurred whenever a player has complete control over the ball in his glove, and if he drops the ball after opening his glove, it will still be ruled an out. There is no requirement to successfully remove the ball from the glove for it to be an out.

The previous interpretation cost Orioles shortstop Ryan Flaherty a valuable out in a loss against the Red Sox on Sunday night. The nationally televised game, along with several other contests where the transfer rule has come into play, helped bring to the forefront the issue with the new way the rule was being enforced.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Friday he was glad baseball made the swift change and wasn't going to opine on whether it cost the O's a victory at Fenway Park.

"Refresh my memory, didn't we benefit from that call, too," Showalter said, referring to a game earlier this season. "I'm not going to dwell on it. Ryan and our infielders knew what was going to be called. Whether it was fair or not fair ... . It's not like we weren't forewarned, and we talked to our guys in the spring about it. We talked to our guys in the advanced meeting about it. Everybody knew. That's why there wasn't a whole lot of argument out there.

"Shame on you if you haven't made your people aware of it. And anybody that comes out and complains about it must have not been listening at the meetings."