NEW YORK — Toward the end of last season, Major League Baseball’s competition committee voted to put into effect a few major rule changes for the 2023 season and beyond.
These rules were tested in the Minor Leagues and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this month, “Each of these rules have been tested in approximately 8,000 minor league games dating back to last season, which is the equivalent of three and half complete major league seasons.”
The rules include a pitch clock and penalties if you don’t obey that pitch clock, bigger bases, the elimination of the shift, and limiting the number of times a pitcher disengages from the rubber i.e. pickoff attempts and pickoffs. The main reasons for these rule changes are safety and pace of play.
Pitch Clock
There will now be a 30-second clock between batters and there will be penalties if a pitcher isn’t ready in time. There will also be a 15-second clock between pitches when there are runners on a base and a 20-second clock when the bases are empty. Now here’s where it gets sticky. If a pitcher doesn’t at least start his delivery by the time the clock reaches zero, he will be charged with a ball. But the batters are safe either. The clock is for them as well and if a batter doesn’t get back into the box by the 8-second mark, he will be charged with a strike.
MLB is trying to speed up the game because the average nine-inning game in 2022 was just over three hours in length—clocking in at 3 hours and 4 minutes. Interestingly, that’s down six minutes from 2021’s 3 hours and 10-minute average but the competition committee believes the average can fall even lower with these changes. It reduced the length of games in MiLB by nearly 26 minutes.
The Shift
The team on defense must have four players in the infield with two on each side of second base. So no more four-man outfields. Players will be allowed to move as soon as a pitch is released. Now the interesting thing about this change is how it will be enforced. If the team up to bat gets a hit while the defensive team is in violation, nothing will happen. But if the play results in an out or a sacrifice, the hitting team can accept a penalty which would add a ball to the batter’s count or they could decline it and the play would stand.
The batting average league-wide was .244 which was the lowest since 1968. Why does that year stand out? Well, it’s widely known as the year of the pitcher in MLB. The same year Bob Gibson finished the season with a 1.12 ERA—a record that probably won’t be broken. And while there are pitchers who are good in 2023, a big reason why so many players had low averages is that their batted balls were getting swallowed by the defensive shift. The league expects batting averages to increase in 2023 thanks to this rule change.
Pickoffs
Stolen bases and stolen base attempts are low league-wide. With the new rule limiting disengagement by pitchers, MLB expects that to change. Disengagement means pickoffs, pickoff attempts, faking pickoffs, and any time a pitcher steps off the rubber. Even the defense requesting a time-out will count as disengagement from the rubber. They will now be limited to two per plate appearance.
If there is a third disengagement or a step off the mound, the pitcher will be charged with a balk unless a player already on a base advances a base or an out is made on the play that follows the step-off. What baseball wants is more stolen bases and attempts. This rule change resulted in more stolen base attempts in the Minors.
Bigger Bases
This is where the safety aspect of the rule changes comes into effect. The size of the bases is increasing from 15 inches to 18 inches. MLB is hoping the change in size will decrease the number of injuries and increase stolen base attempts.
In the minors, it seems the size change alone didn’t affect much but the size change along with the pickoff attempt limit, increased stolen base attempts, and limited injuries around the bases.
Ghost runner in extra innings
The rule that seems to have divided Major League Baseball fans even more than the universal DH is returning permanently after a few years of hemming and hawing from the powers that be who said it was only implemented because of the COVID shortened 2020 season for safety reasons. The rule stuck around in 2021 and 2022 and now it’s here to stay.
A runner will be on second base at the start of every extra inning beginning in the 10th inning but only in the regular season. The rule will, once again, not be part of the playoffs. The automatic runner which some people refer to as the Manfred Man doesn’t count as an earned run for the pitcher. The runner gets credited for a run scored but doesn’t get credited for time on base so his OBP doesn’t increase. The batter who drives the runner in will get credited with an RBI.