New rules could drastically alter look, length of MLB games
PEORIA, Ariz. — Oh yeah, change is coming.
“I think the biggest thing,” Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth said, “is that it went from one end of the spectrum, where there was nothing, to completely opposite end of the spectrum, where now it’s an extreme.”
Spring training games begin Friday, and that is when we will begin to see just how extreme the lengths to which Major League Baseball has gone to, in the words of Commissioner Rob Manfred, “make a great product even better.”
Baseball’s languid pace and ever-the-sameness are held by many to be what make the game such a romantic pursuit. The basic rules and regulations of the game have remained almost entirely unchanged practically since the dawn of it being played professionally.
Suddenly, three major alterations to how the game has been played will be in place for the 2023 season.
The rule changes were made with the aim of quickening pace of play and shortening games, promoting action (offense) and enhancing safety.
“We think the changes are going to produce a crisp, more exciting game,” Manfred said. “More balls in play, and I think the athleticism of our great athletes will shine through. It’s not about changing the game; it’s about making sure we put the best form of baseball on the field.”
Most in the game agree that some changes had to be made. Some just feel it was a bit much all at once.
“There’s gonna be a lot,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s a lot of rules to acclimate to in a short amount of time. Everybody has to go through it, but it seems like a lot to throw all these in in one season.”
We’ll see.
Pitch clock
Baseball loves its timelessness. But it had to do something to make its game more appealing in today’s 280-character, short-attention-span culture.
The average game took 3 hours, 6 minutes in 2022, down five minutes from an all-time high of 3:11 in ‘21 but 15 minutes longer than the average game in 1990 and 28 minutes longer than in 1980.
So the game that has for so long been so proud of its lack of clocks will have a lot of them — two behind home plate and one in the outfield counting down the seconds before a pitch must be delivered.
There will be 30 seconds allowed between batters, and pitchers will have 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and 20 seconds with runners on. The timer begins when the pitcher receives the ball, and pitchers must begin their delivery before the clock expires. A violation results in a ball being called.
The clock will abbreviate between-pitch downtime for batters as well. They must be in the box and “alert” to the pitcher with eight seconds remaining on the clock. A violation will result in a strike being called.
This could produce the most noticeable change in the box score.
The minor leagues employed a clock last season that allowed 14 and 18 seconds between pitches. Average game length decreased by 25 minutes.
Key to this change is that the clock resets when a pitcher steps off the mound. So pitchers are now allowed to “disengage” (step off or attempt a pickoff) from the mound just twice per plate appearance. A pitcher is al
lowed a third pickoff attempt, but if it does not result in an out, the runner is awarded a base.
“The disengagements (rule) is radical,” Rockies manager Bud Black said.
First, the restrictions on pitchers has the potential to greatly alter the running game. In the minor leagues, steal attempts and success rate increased slightly.
Second, pitchers now have less time between pitches. For some, like Padres reliever Tim Hill, who was the fastest worker in the majors with runners on base, it won’t be a big deal. For closers pitching in the ninth inning with a game on the line, it will be a bigger challenge.
Same for starters who are working deep in games. Joe Musgrove’s adjusted average time between pitches with nobody on base was 10.9 seconds in 2022. But that swung wildly as the game went on — generally from less than 10 second to 15 seconds in the first couple innings to around 20 seconds in the sixth and beyond. In that pitchers often use more time even with the bases empty later in games in an effort to maintain velocity, the expectation is some pitchers will see a dip in how hard they throw.
“I put a big emphasis on the cardio and durability aspect of my training and ensure that the endurance and stuff especially with the little adjustments in the pitch clock,” Musgrove said.
“You never know how that’s going to affect your body.”
Pitchers began working with a clock in the offseason to get used to what 15 and 20 seconds actually felt like. Many also experimented with different techniques to quicken and/or vary their time to the plate since some runners might be emboldened to take off as a pitch clock winds down — especially if a pitcher has already disengaged twice.
In live batting practice Monday, hitters who notoriously take a lot of time between pitches like Juan Soto and Trent Grisham, hardly stepped out of the box. When they did, it was briefly. (Soto did still have time to do a somewhat abbreviated shuffle a couple times.)
One thing that should aid pitchers is that the PitchCom electronic pitch-calling system now goes two ways. Pitchers will now have a keypad with which they can signal to the catcher what pitches are coming.
“That’s going to help bigtime,” Padres pitcher Nick Martinez said.
No shift
Simply put, MLB has banned the shift with the intent of having more balls put in play become hits.
Infielders can no longer line up in the outfield, and two of them have to be on each side of second base when the pitcher is on the rubber.
This change gets all the headlines, because “the shift” became something of a lightning rod — a point of contention between those who appreciated the strategy of moving fielders to where the ball was most likely to be hit and those who missed the days when a line drive to shallow right field or a hard bouncer up the middle was a certain single.
But there are divided opinions as to how much of a difference the ban will make.
Teams will still line up players in spots where they expect a batter to hit the ball. It just won’t be the second baseman in right field or three fielders on one side.
Batting average on balls in play has dropped seven points over the past decade, from .297 to .290. That would have been a difference of some 850 base hits leaguewide over the course of last season, which is not all that much considering teams play a combined 2,430 games.
Still, there is no doubt the shift penalized left-handed pull hitters more than others.
“I don’t think any of us know to what extent it hinders (offense),” said new Padres designated hitter Matt Carpenter, a left-handed pull hitter. “I think that’s kind of what we’re all going to figure out this year. I’m excited, because I do know what my eyes tell me. There’s 10 or so hits every year that I felt like got taken away, and that’s a big number.”
Larger bases
The least significant of the changes is nonetheless immediately noticeable.
“They’re huge,” Padres catcher Austin Nola said.
The bases have been increased from 15 inches on each side to 18 inches. Seeing it in person makes the 20% increase appear even greater.
The idea behind the bigger bases is to make the game safer — safer to slide and safer to apply a tag or cover first base.
The distance between bases has been decreased by 4 1/2 inches, which could have an effect on bang-bang plays. The bigger surface could also reduce the number of instances in which a runners slides past the base and is tagged out.
One thing players and coaches have noticed, however, is that the new bases do not have a crown in the middle that has always allowed for some give and push-off when stepped on. Players say the new bases are more slippery than the ones they are used to.
There is no doubt it’s a lot of change.
Those involved are hopeful many of the unknowns are discovered and worked through in spring training. It is anticipated there will be some leakage into the season, which will cause some griping.
But most feel, at least to a certain extent, the way Musgrove does.
“It’s all gonna be fine,” Musgrove said. “Everyone is going to adjust like you do anything else. It just seems so crazy at first, but we do a year of this, half a season of this, it’s going to be like normal.”