MLB Rain Delay Rules 2025: Know all about the changes this year to weather-affected baseball games

Rain delays can't be controlled, but MLB has a set of rules to deal with them. As we head into the 2025 season, here’s a guide to how MLB handles weather-affected games, including what has changed and what remains the same.

Before we delve into delays, it's important to know about the concept of "regulation game" — or "official game."

There are two scenarios here: once the visiting team has recorded 15 outs (five innings), and the home team is in the lead, the game is official. Alternatively, if the home team has also recorded 15 outs (regardless of the score), the game qualifies as official. This is the key point at which weather-related decisions begin to matter.

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What happens if an MLB game is stopped before it’s official?

Before 2020, if a game was halted before becoming official due to weather, all results were wiped clean, and the game was restarted from scratch at a later date. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic season in 2020, MLB adjusted this rule to prioritize safety and scheduling: any game cut short before becoming official would be resumed at a later date rather than restarted.

This policy was well-received, and, as of 2025, MLB continues to follow this approach — games halted early due to weather are resumed from the point of suspension and aren't replayed.

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What happens if an MLB Game is official but stopped early?

If a regulation game is terminated due to weather, it’s considered final under these conditions:

1. The home team is leading at the time of stoppage.
2. The home team is trailing, but the game was stopped in between innings or before the visiting team took the lead in the current inning.
3. If the game is tied or if it’s in the middle of an inning in which the visiting team has just taken the lead, the game becomes a suspended game. In that case, it will be resumed at a later date from the exact point it was paused.

The rules are pretty much the same they were in 2025, and MLB hasn't given out any new set of guidelines for rain-affected games. However, there's one important thing to note: the playing conditions have to be at an optimum level for players to continue playing on the diamond safely.