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| Photo Credit: AP. |
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is introducing some of its most radical rules next season, adopting a pitch clock and limiting defensive shifts after concluding modern analytics created a slower, less entertaining sport.
The
decisions were made Friday by the sport’s 11-man competition committee over the
unanimous opposition of the panel’s four players. Commissioner Rob Manfred
pushed for the innovations along with a management team that included former
Boston and Chicago Cubs executive Theo Epstein, now an MLB consultant.
“The influx
of data in our industry,” Epstein said, “have not improved the game from an
esthetic standpoint or from an entertainment standpoint. So in my role now,
it’s my responsibility to try to look at the big picture, think about what’s
great for fans.”
Players
supported the third major initiative: larger bases that are expected to lessen
injuries and lead to more stolen bases because of a decreased distance of 4 1/2
inches.
Manfred
called the rules an attempt to “bring back the best form of baseball.”
“Number one,
fans want games with better pace,” he said during a news conference. “Two, fans
want more action, more balls in play. And three, fans want to see more of the
athleticism of our great players.”
Union head
Tony Clark was noticeably absent, as he was at the announcement of an agreement
in March that ended a 99-day lockout.
“Players
live the game — day in and day out. On-field rules and regulations impact their
preparation, performance, and ultimately, the integrity of the game itself,”
the union said in a statement. “Major League Baseball was unwilling to
meaningfully address the areas of concern that players raised.”
The pitch
clock will be set at 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 seconds with
runners — up from the 14/19 tested at Triple-A this season and 14/18 at lower
minor league levels.
There will
be a limit of two of what MLB calls disengagements — pickoff attempts or steps
off the rubber — per plate appearance, and a balk would be called for a third
or more unless there is an out. The disengagement limit, which some players
predict will beneft baserunners, would be reset if a runner advances.
A catcher is
required to be in the catcher’s box with nine seconds left on the clock and a
hitter in the batter’s box and focused on the pitcher with eight seconds remaining.
Penalties for violations will be a ball called against a pitcher and a strike
called against a batter.
A batter can
ask an umpire for time once per plate appearance, and after that it would be
granted only at the umpire’s discretion if the request is made while in the
batter’s box.
The clock,
which some players suggested be altered for late and close situations, has
helped reduce the average time of a nine-inning game in the minor leagues from
3 hours, 4 minutes in 2021 to 2:38 this season. The average time of a
nine-inning game in the major leagues this year is 3:07, up from 2:46 in 1989
and 2:30 in the mid-1950s.
“It reminded
me of the game that I grew up watching in the ’70s and ’80,” said former
outfielder Raúl Ibañez, now an MLB senior vice president.
Two
infielders will be required to be on either side of second and all infielders
to be within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the
rubber. Infielders may not switch sides unless there is a substitution, but
five-man infields will still be allowed, MLB executive vice president Morgan
Sword said.
Shifts have
soared from 2,357 times on balls hit in play in 2011 to 28,130 in 2016 and
59,063 last year, according to Sports Info Solutions. Shifts are on pace for
68,000 this season.
“I think
fans will cherish the moments absent the extreme defensive shifts when games
are decided not by whether their team’s infield is positioned by the perfect
algorithm, but by whether their team’s second baseman can range to make an
athletic dive playing with everything on the line,” Epstein said.
MLB’s season
batting average has dropped from .267 in 1997 to .243 this year, with a team’s
average runs declining from 4.77 to 4.33.
“The game has evolved in a way that nobody
would have chosen if we were sitting down 25 years ago to chart a path towards
the best version of baseball,” Epstein said. “Nobody would have asked for fans
to have to wait more than four minutes for balls to be put into play. Nobody
would have asked for generational lows and stolen bases, triples and doubles.”
Base size
will increase to 18-inch squares from 15 — first basemen are less likely to get
stepped on.
In addition,
each team will be allowed a sixth mound visit in the ninth inning next year, if
it has used five during the first eight innings.
Until last
winter, MLB needed one year advance notice to amend on-field rules without
union approval but the March lockout settlement established the committee.
Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty, Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow, Blue Jays
infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield and Giants outfielder Austin Slater
represented players Friday, a group that included Cubs infielder Ian Happ as an
alternate.
“It’s going to be hard on guys. ... It’s a
shame that that we weren’t taken more seriously,” Merrifield said. “It’s an
overcorrect and they’re going to have to tweak it. And that’s just what we were
trying to avoid.”
Seattle
chairman John Stanton headed the committee, which included include St. Louis
CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick
Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner, along with
umpire Bill Miller.
“It’s hard
to get consensus among the group of players on changing the game,” Manfred
said. “I think at the end of the day what we did here was about giving fans the
kind of game they want to see.”
AP Sports
Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.
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