Average MLB game time record 3 hours, 5 minutes this season

NEW YORK – The average time of a nine-inning game in the major leagues rose 4 1/2 minutes this season to a record 3 hours, 5 minutes, 11 seconds, according to the commissioner’s office.

This year’s average, determined after Sunday’s regular-season finale, was up from 3 hours, 42 seconds last year.

MLB’s average had dropped to 2:56 in 2015 from 3:02 in 2014.

Baseball management proposed three changes last offseason the players’ association didn’t accept, and MLB has the right to start them next year without player approval: restricting catchers to one trip to the mound per pitcher each inning, employing a 20-second pitch clock and raising the bottom of the strike zone from just beneath the kneecap to its pre-1996 level – at the top of the kneecap.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has said he prefers reaching an agreement with the union.