New rule concerning home plate collisions

RATHER THAN ban home-plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season.

In what both sides said was a 1-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runner's direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate.

"It's not a radical departure from what it had been," Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

The new rule, 7.13, states "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball.

"It's good, I think it takes away the malicious intent behind the play at the plate," Texas Rangers catcher J.P. Arencibia said. "Obviously the runner doesn't always have to slide, and the catcher still has the ability to block the plate once he has the ball in hand."

The catcher can, however, blocks the runner's path if it is the only place he can stand while fielding a throw. The umpire crew chief can use the new video-review system to determine whether the rule was violated.

* Former Phillie Jim Thome, now a special assistant to Chicago White Sox general manager Rick Hahn, told the Chicago Sun-Times he would like to manage one day.

"This is the thing in this job I'm in now - I want to look at what the next phase is for me getting back on the field, competing at a high level," said Thome, who played for the Phillies from 2003-05. "There is a side to me that wants to manage someday and prepare myself for it if that opportunity came calling. I'd want to be ready."

* New York Mets first baseman Ike Davis admits he concealed a nagging oblique strain from the team last year but claims the injury wasn't a factor in his poor performance.

Davis confirmed a story that first appeared Sunday on the New York Post's website. Mets manager Terry Collins said he was "as surprised as anybody" when he heard that Davis, who hit a career-low .205 last season, had been playing with an injury. Collins said he will address the situation privately with Davis.

* Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington is signed through 2015 after the team added a year to his contract. He is the team's winningest manager with 611 wins over seven seasons, and led Texas to its only two World Series appearances in 2010 and '11.

* Outfielder Nelson Cruz, 33, and the Baltimore Orioles finalized an $8 million, 1-year contract, a deal that puts him on track to become the team's regular designated hitter. He served a 50-game suspension last year for violating baseball's drug agreement.

* Union head Tony Clark said the players' association has no issues going forward with suspended New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was among 14 players suspended last summer following MLB's investigation of a Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned substances. He was the only player to contest his penalty.

Rodriguez sued Major League Baseball and the players' association in January in an effort to overturn a season-long suspension, then dropped the lawsuit this month. Rodriguez initially was suspended for 211 games in August by baseball commissioner Bud Selig, and the union filed a grievance to overturn the discipline. Arbitrator Fredric Horowitz shortened the penalty after a hearing the three-time AL MVP claimed was flawed.

Rodriguez will be 39 when eligible to return next year and has three seasons and $61 million left in his record million, 10-year contract with the Yankees.

* A Colorado Rockies official denied the team was interested in free-agent righthander Ervin Santana.

CBS Sports reported the Rockies inquired about Santana after shutting down righthander Jhoulys Chacin on Sunday with inflammation in his throwing shoulder.