Major League Baseball is talking to the Major League Baseball Players Association about rule changes for the 2017 season. Especially two main items are at stake. MLB would like to raise the bottom end of the strike zone from beneath the kneecap to the top, as umpires have been calling more and more lower strikes in the last couple of years. The last change to the strike zone was made in 1996.
Additionally MLB would like to change the intentional walk rule to the rule, which is in use in softball, where the manager simply would announce an intentional walk and the hitter would directly walk to first base instead looking at four pitches outside the strike zone.