New MLB Rules in Place for the 2024 Season
Major League Baseball sent out a press release announcing the new rules that will take place in the 2024 season. They all have to do with the pace of the game. It appears that MLB did not like that the average game times increased by seven or so minutes from April to September. To combat that, the league wanted to institute six rules/ rule changes but settled for five of them after discussing them with players. These rule changes are effective right away and will continue in the future unless otherwise changed. This is championed by Commissioner Rob Manfred who has made the pitch clock and pace of play his crowning achievement of his time as commissioner.
The first rule that was changed was the Pitch Timer. Last year, the pitch timer was set for 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 seconds for runners on base. Now, the timer has changed for runners on base from 20 to 18. This was due to MLB finding that violations with runners on base were the least often violations, just 14% of them. They made sure to note that pitchers still will be able to step off twice and reset the clock without any penalization. This might change in the future since MLB made sure to point out that a universal 17-second clock used in Triple-A did not increase violations with runners on base.
MLB wanted to adjust batter timeouts that would have allowed the Home Plate Umpire to immediately reset the Pitch Clock after a batter asked for a timeout, but upon further talks with players, it was decided that it would not happen.
Pitching Changes have been adjusted so that the timer between innings does not reset to 2:15. If a new pitcher steps onto the warning track with under two minutes remaining, it will reset back to two minutes instead of the 2:15 like last year. This is since innings last year that featured pitching changes averaged 2 minutes and 35 seconds while broadcasters are only guaranteed two minutes of commercials.
MLB has adjusted the number of Mound Visits from five to four per game while still enabling an extra mound visit in the ninth inning if the team runs out before the ninth inning. According to MLB, 98% of games wouldn't have exceeded a limit of four mound visits, and that clubs averaged just 2.3 per game. They also ruled that infielders could signal to umpires that they want to call a mound visit without having to first visit the mound.
To avoid players circumventing the rules regarding the pitch clock, the FTC will restart the timer after a dead ball, such as a foul ball, when the pitcher has the ball and play can resume. Before, it was required that players had to be on the mound before the timer would start. This was done to remove the pitcher's ability to delay the beginning of the timer by staying on the grass or slow-walking back to the mound.
The final rule that MLB pushed through was that any pitcher who warms up must face at least one hitter. This would address the times that teams send out a pitcher to warm up, such as a starting pitcher or reliever, who would be pulled as soon as the batter was announced. This could've been due to the strategy of forcing the opponent's hand to waste a batter or another factor. Instead, any pitcher that warms up MUST face at least one batter while staying in compliance with the Three Batter Minimum Rule. Reportedly, there were 24 instances of this happening where a pitcher warmed up but was pulled before throwing a pitch. Plus, there were two instances of it in the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. This change was made to eliminate approximately three minutes of dead time.
These are the new rule changes for the 2024 season, far less than last year's but still notable. It remains to be seen if the shortened pitch clock will affect pitchers more or cause an increased rate or risk of injuries to pitchers. Regardless, the 2024 season is shaping up to be quicker than last year's and just as much fun.
