MLB eschews use of a pitch clock for now
BRADENTON, Fla. — Major League Baseball announced rule changes Monday intended to increase the pace of play, including a limit on mound visits, but the changes did not includea pitch clock.
The rules resulted from negotiations between MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association, meaning commissioner Rob Manfred did not unilaterally impose them, as is his right under the collective bargaining agreement. Concerned with television viewing habits as dead time in the game increases, Manfred is attempting to reduce the periods during which nothing is happening and counteract the lengthening time of games, which grew to an average of 3:05 in 2017.
“I am pleased that we were able to reach an understanding with the Players Association to take concrete steps to address pace of play with the cooperation of players,” Manfred said ina statement. “My strong preference is to continue to have ongoing dialogue with players on this topic to find mutually acceptable solutions.”
Teams — players, managers, coaches — can make only six mound visits that do not involve a pitching change per nine innings. They receive another one for each additional extra inning. There are exceptions, such as in the case of injury, a cross-up of signs between a pitcher and a catcher or after the announcement of a pinch-hitter.
Some players object to limitations on mound visits because of the importance of slowing down the game in big situations and switching the signs with runners on base. Not only do the pitcher and catcher need to know which sign they’re on, but so do the middle infielders so they can adequately position themselves. They also were not thrilled about a pitch clock, which was proposed earlier thisyear.
“Players were involved in the pace-of-game discussion from Day One, and are committed to playing a crisp and exciting brand of baseball for the fans, but they remain concerned about rule changes that could alter the outcome of games and the fabric of the game itself — now or in the future,” MLBPA executive directory Tony Clark said in a statement.
The new rules reduce the time between innings and pitching changes to 2:05 for locally televised games, 2:25 for national games and 2:55 for tiebreaker and playoff games. The pace-of-action rules instituted in 2015 called for 2:25 breaks for locally televised games and 2:45 fornational games.
“In a normal game, just a regular locally broadcast game, we sell 90 seconds of [commercial] inventory in an inning break and our average inning break is two minutes, 26 seconds,” Manfred said last week. “There’s lots of time there that can be picked up in terms of the length of the game.”
Pitchers are no longer guaranteed eight warm-up pitches and must throw their final warm-up pitch at least 20 seconds before the end of the inning break or pitching change.
Video rooms now will have direct slow-motion replay available, ostensibly to speed up a manager’s decision on whether or not to challenge a play. They also will have new phone lines to the dugout, and those lines will be monitored to ensure they can’t be used to steal signs.
Stealing signs is legal. Using technology to do so is not, so this measure prevents video coordinators from alerting the dugout, who can in turn signal a runner, who can then inform the batter. In 2017, MLB fined the Boston Red Sox for using an Apple Watch to expedite the transfer of stolen signs in the video room to the players in the dug out and on the field.