Guardians News: More Rule Changes Coming To MLB

The MLB Competition Committee announced modifications to last season's rule change, but the MLBPA is not

Baseball had a different look to it in 2023 thanks to several rule changes implemented to improve the pace of play. These modifications included a pitch clock, limited disengagements off the mound by a pitcher, and increased base size.

These were largely a success and helped the Cleveland Guardians in some areas and now MLB has announced another wave of rule changes for the 2024 season. 

Here are all the official rule changes from the MLB Competition Committee themselves:

• Runner’s Lane: The Runner’s Lane will be widened to include the dirt area between the foul line and the infield grass.
• Timing Between Pitches: Reduce time from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base.
• Batter Timeouts: Based on player feedback, MLB withdrew a proposal that would have required the home plate umpire to immediately reset the Pitch Clock after a batter called timeout.
• Pitching Changes: If a new pitcher steps onto the warning track with less than 2:00 remaining on the inning break Clock, the Clock will reset to 2:00 rather than 2:15 as was the case in 2023.
• Mound Visits: Mound visits will be reduced from five per game to four, and an extra mound visit will still be awarded for the ninth inning if the defensive team has zero remaining at the end of the eighth inning.
• Circumvention: The FTC will now restart the timer after a dead ball (e.g., foul ball) when the pitcher has the ball and play is ready to resume.
• Pitcher Who Warms Up Must Face At Least One Hitter: A pitcher who is sent out to warm up for an inning must face at least one batter (in addition to any requirements under the Three-Batter Minimum rule).

Again, the rationale for all of these changes is to increase the pace of play and are "adjustments based on feedback from Major League Player and Umpire representatives" according to the MLB Competition Committee.

Adapting the rules based on constructive criticism seems like a great idea on paper. However, the players association is not too pleased with these changes. Tony Clark, President of the MLBPA, said that "immediate and additional changes are not unnecessary and offer no meaningful benefit to fans, Players, or the competition on the field."

Read Clark's full statement here.

Will these additional changes work or be beneficial? Time will tell. They'll be implemented into games once spring training starts this February.