KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The changes to Major League Baseball will be fully implemented on Opening Day.

The sport’s rules changes include a 15-second pitch clock (20 seconds with runners on base), limits on infield shifts and bigger bases.

The changes have been in the minors for the past few seasons and the young stars of the Kansas City Royals said they had to adjust to the MLB rules since that’s what they played in.

After playing more than 30 games with the new rules, most of the Royals said they enjoy the rules and are excited to start the season.

“I think it’s gonna add two more years on my career,” star catcher Salvador Perez said. “I don’t think I’m gonna catch more games [that are] four hours and 15 minutes. Now it’s gonna be two hours and 20 minutes, two hours and 45 minutes the most.”

“It’s been surprisingly a lot of good thoughts about it,” pitcher Zack Greinke said. “There’s more positives than negatives to it.”

“There was a few times in the big leagues last year where I would be ready in the box and the pitcher wasn’t even close to the mound,” first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said. “I would look up a few times and have to back out of the box because the guy was walking around the mound.”

“I feel like I didn’t really get used to the pitch clock when I was in Triple-A,” catcher/outfielder MJ Melendez said. The second-year major leaguer said when he’s catching, there is an advantage on the defensive side but he was never fully comfortable.

“Whenever I got called, it felt like a sigh of relief.”

Pitchers can only disengage from the rubber twice in each at-bat, meaning limited chances for pickoff attempts. If a pitcher disengages a third time and doesn’t record an out, a balk is called and all runners advance one base.

Hitters get one timeout per plate appearance; must be in the batter’s box with eight seconds left.

The pitch timer helped reduce game length by 25 minutes in minors in 2022 and pitchers like relief pitcher Scott Barlow enjoy the new pace of the game.

At first, he said he was pitching too quickly to where he was losing breath in between pitches before he adjusted.

“15 seconds is a lot longer than you think.”

“Getting used to it and knowing the pace of it, I really enjoyed it.”

The Royals begin the season with the Minnesota Twins on Thursday at 3:10.