Mar 19, 2022; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; New York Mets third baseman Luis Guillorme (13) circles the bases after connecting a home run in the first inning against the Washington Nationals during spring training at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

There’s good news and bad news from the baseball world today.

Per Joel Sherman of The New York Post, MLB and the Players Association have reached a tentative agreement on a deal that will introduce some changes to the game in 2022.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, rosters will be expanded from 26 to 28 through May 1 in order to compensate for the shortened spring training due to the lockout.

As part of this, once the rosters expand to 28, teams can have any amount of pitchers they want with there being a major concern over getting arms fully stretched out in a condensed time period. Then, from May 2, rosters will return to 26 and teams will go back to having just 13 pitchers.

There’s also a rule, being dubbed the ‘Shohei Ohtani Rule’ by The Post, that stipulates if a starting pitcher is also hitting in the lineup, then that player remains as the DH even if he’s pulled from the start.

Put simply, if Ohtani is pulled after three or four innings, he would still get his at-bats for the entire game. It is a rule that will last the duration of the new five-year CBA, and it should be a pretty fun change. Especially if it means we get to see more two-way players like Ohtani emerge.

Also agreed upon is the fact that seven-inning doubleheaders are no more, with all doubleheaders now being played as full nine-inning games, including the two series that have been rescheduled after being postponed because of the lockout.

However, in news that will displease pretty much every baseball fan, the universally hated ‘Ghost Runner’ will return in 2022. In case you need reminding, and you probably don’t, a runner will be placed on second base to begin each extra inning in order to create instant action and to avoid lengthy games.

The good news is that the ‘Ghost Runner’ will only be back for 2022, but it is a rule change most baseball fans had hoped they had seen the back of.

With agreement reached on all of the above, it is expected that MLB owners will now vote to ratify these rule changes next week, with the reason for the bulk of the changes revolving around health and safety in the wake of a shortened spring training.