Major League Baseball and the Players Association have set their rosters for a committee whose work could transform the sport and cure some of the issues that have impacted the entertainment value in recent years.

According to a league source, the players on the new Joint Competition committee are Jack Flaherty of the St. Louis Cardinals, Whit Merrifield of the Kansas City Royals, Tyler Glasnow of the Tampa Bay Rays and Austin Slater of the San Francisco Giants. Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs and Walker Buehler of the Los Angeles Dodgers will serve as alternates.

On the ownership side are Seattle’s John Stanton, St. Louis’ Bill DeWitt, San Francisco’s Greg Johnson, Colorado’s Dick Monfort, Boston’s Tom Werner and Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro.

There is one umpire on the committee, veteran crew chief Bill Miller.

The committee, which was created as part of the new collective bargaining agreement in March, will study issues including the pitch clock, base size and banning or limiting defensive shifts.

In large part because the owners have two more votes than the players, there is a widespread expectation in clubhouses that the pitch clock will be implemented for the 2023 season. It has significantly impacted pace and time of game in the minor leagues this season, shaving approximately 30 minutes off games on average.

The current pitch clock in use in the minors gives pitchers 14 seconds when there are no runners on base and 18 or 19 seconds with runners on, depending on the level.

“We are encouraged by the results in the Minor Leagues,” commissioner Rob Manfred said at the quarterly owners meetings earlier this month. “We've said for years that the Minor Leagues provide us with a really important opportunity to experiment, learn and make sure we understand how something's going to work if we deploy it on the field.”

Players express a variety of opinions on the pitch clock, some more enthusiastic than others to a change that would, in fairness. impact the craft they have practiced for a lifetime. But they do expect that the Joint Committee will discuss specifics and move toward implementation for a change that will have a dramatic impact on the experience of playing and watching the game -- with more alterations likely to come.

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