2013 Major League Baseball Season

The 2013 Major League Baseball season is set to begin on March 31 with a Sunday night game featuring the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. Opening Day for most clubs will be a day later on April 1. The season is scheduled to end on September 29.

The 2013 season will be the Houston Astros' first as a member of the American League and they will be placed in the West Division. This will mark the first growth in the number of American League teams since the 1977 addition of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. When the then-named Tampa Bay Devil Rays was added to the AL in 1998, the Milwaukee Brewers switched to the NL the same year, keeping the AL at 14 teams. 

Due to the Astros' league switch, all six divisions will have five teams each, thus causing inter-league games to be played throughout the entire Major League season for the first time in MLB history.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game's 84th edition will be held on July 16 at Citi Field in Queens, New York City, home of the New York Mets. The winning league will once again receive home-field advantage during the World Series, something that has happened since the 2003 season.

Rule Changes

Several minor rule changes are expected to take effect this season. As of January 14, 2013, these changes have been approved by MLB owners; unless otherwise noted, they will also need the approval of the players' union.-

When visiting the pitcher's mound, managers and coaches will be allowed to bring interpreters for the benefit of pitchers not fluent in English.

Teams will be allowed to have seven uniformed coaches in the dugout, up from six last season. This change came about after many teams hired second hitting coaches.

The pickoff move in which a right-handed pitcher fakes to third base and throws to first would be considered a balk. This new rule had been approved by MLB's rules committee for the 2012 season, but the union vetoed it pending further discussion.

This change can be implemented for 2013 without the union's approval, but an ESPN report indicated that the owners hoped that the players would agree to the change.

Scheduling Changes

The Houston Astros' move to the American League West created two 15-team leagues each separated into three five-team divisions. With an odd number of teams in each league, interleague games will be played nearly every day during the season (with the only exception being when not every team has a game). For this season, each team will play 20 interleague games (up from 15-18 games in 2012) in eight series. 

Each team will play one three-game series against four teams from one division in the other league, and two two-game series (one home, one away) against the remaining team in that division (for 2013 the match-ups are AL East vs. NL West, AL Central vs. NL East, and AL West vs. NL Central, meaning the changes of the Astros and the small increase in interleague play will not affect the yearly rotation, also the Astros will play all of their former NL Central rivals in 2013).

The remaining four games will be played against a team's "natural rival" in two back-to-back two-game series from May 27–30. Teams will play in one city May 27 and 28, then travel to the other city for games on May 29 and 30. It will be the first season that every team has an interleague rivalry, according to the table below, with new rivalries for this season shown in italics.

AL East	NL East	AL Central	NL Central	AL West	NL West
Red Sox	Phillies	White Sox	Cubs	Mariners	Padres
Yankees	Mets	Indians	Reds	Angels	Dodgers
Blue Jays	Braves	Tigers	Pirates	Athletics	Giants
Rays	Marlins	Twins	Brewers	Rangers	D-backs
Orioles	Nationals	Royals	Cardinals	Astros	Rockies

The remaining 142 games will be played within the league. Each team will play its four division rivals 19 games (up from 15-18 in 2012) for a total of 76 games. Each team will play either 6 or 7 games against the ten teams in the two other divisions in its league, for a total of 66 games. In 2012, these season series ranged anywhere from five to ten games, creating large disparities between teams' strengths of schedule.

Aside from the natural rivalries, teams from the same division will play the same opponents for roughly the same number of games. The only variation occurs in interleague match-ups (either 3 or 4 games) and same-league interdivision match-ups (either 6 or 7 games).

Uniforms

All 30 teams will be wearing new batting practice caps.

The Houston Astros unveiled a new/old identity at a fan event November 2, 2012 at Minute Maid Park, as the team reverted to the orange and navy colors used from their foundation in 1962 through 1993. There are four uniforms and three hats. Houston will wear white uniforms with orange piping at home and gray ones with blue piping on the road. There's an orange alternate jersey with blue piping that can be worn at home or on the road, as well as a blue jersey to be worn for Sunday games.

On November 14, the New York Mets introduced two new blue alternate jerseys. The home alternate features the "Mets" script, player numerals and names in orange outlined in white, while the road alternate features the "NEW YORK" script, player numerals and names in gray outlined in orange.  The team will wear a new alternate cap with the blue jerseys. The caps are blue with an orange brim, with an orange "NY" logo outlined in white.

On November 19, the St. Louis Cardinals introduced an alternate uniform to be worn for Saturday home games. The uniform is off-white and the jersey features the "St. Louis" script on the front. This is the first time in 80 years the city name appears in the team's uniforms.

On December 14, the Pittsburgh Pirates introduced an alternate uniform to be worn for Sunday home games. It is the same uniform that the team wore from mid-1970 through 1976 and was worn during their championship season of 1971. The hat that goes with this uniform is mustard gold with a black bill.

On January 24, 2013, the Chicago White Sox announced they will be wearing uniforms on Sunday home games to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1983 division title.  The uniform, unveiled one season earlier, was the winner of a design contest held among fans in 1981.

Retirements

Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees announced on March 9 that he will be retiring at the conclusion of the season.-

Retired Numbers

Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves will have his #10 retired by the team on June 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He will be the 11th player to have his number retired by the Braves.-