New York Mets Ace Blasts MLB's Warm-Up Clock
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New York Mets ace starting pitcher Max Scherzer is still adjusting to Major League Baseball's new rules and pitch clock.
Prior to the fifth inning in the Mets' 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on Thursday, Scherzer was seen having an animated conversation with home plate umpire Tripp Gibson regarding the amount of time he had to warm up.
Based off MLB's new rules in 2023, pitchers get two minutes to warm up between half innings and are allowed eight warm-up pitches during this time. Due to catcher Francisco Alvarez being the final out of the previous half inning, Scherzer was only able to throw seven warm-up pitches, which led to an argument with Gibson.
"Why can't the umpires have discretion in that situation to allow eight normal warm-up pitches?" Scherzer said. "Why do we have to be so anal about this to have the clock shoved in everybody's face and try to step out every single second that's going into the game?"
According to Scherzer, Gibson agreed with him. But if Gibson didn't enforce the rules he'd get into trouble with the league. Gibson wanted Scherzer to speak up about the issue to advocate to MLB for more leeway in specific situations.
"It's situations like this that really are frustrating not only for pitchers, players, but even umpires," Scherzer said. "That's what Tripp says. Tripp is handcuffed. Why is Tripp handcuffed to not allow something normal, a normal routine? Why can't Tripp make that call?"
"They want to allow the game to be normal," he added later. "The umpires are frustrated that the game is not normal, that we're living and dying by the clock. I said I would speak for him. We're way too far thinking about the clock in every single situation instead of letting players have their normal routines."
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