They want to make baseball more attractive, radical changes

Major League Baseball is introducing some of its most radical rules next season, adopting a shot clock and limiting defensive swings after concluding that modern analysis created slower, less entertaining baseball.

Decisions were made Friday by the sport’s 11-man competition committee with unanimous opposition from all four players on the panel. the commissioner Rob Manfred drove 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, “has not improved the game from an aesthetic or entertainment standpoint. So in my role now, it’s my responsibility to try to see the big picture, to think about what’s good for the fans.”

The players supported the third major initiative: larger bases that are expected to reduce injuries and lead to more stolen bases due to a reduced distance of 4 1/2 inches.

Manfred called the rules an attempt to “bring back the best form of baseball«.

“Number one, the fans want better paced games,” he said during a news conference. “Two, the fans want more action, more balls in play. And three, the fans want to see more of the athleticism of our great players.”

Union leader Tony Clark was conspicuously absent, as he was at the announcement of a deal in March that ended a 99-day lockout.

“The players live the game, day after day. The rules and regulations on the field affect your 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 raised by players.”

The shot clock will be set at 15 seconds with no baserunners on and 20 seconds with runners, up from the 14/19 tested in Triple-A this season and the 14/18 at the lower levels of the minor leagues.

There will be a limit of two what MLB calls disengagements (pickoff attempts or steps off the rubber) per plate appearance, and it would be called a balk by a third or more unless there is one out. The disconnect limit, which some players predict will benefit runners, would reset if a runner advances.

One catcher is required to be in the catcher’s box with nine seconds remaining on the clock and one batter in the batter’s box and focused on the pitcher with eight seconds remaining. Penalties for infractions will be a ball called against a pitcher and a strike called against a batter.

A batter may request time from an umpire once per plate appearance, and thereafter it will be granted only at the umpire’s discretion if the request is made while in the batter’s box.

The clock, which some players have suggested modifying for close and late situations, has helped reduce the average time of a nine-inning minor league game from 3 hours, 4 minutes in 2021 to 2:38 this season. The average time for a nine-inning major league game this year is 3:07, down from 2:46 in 1989 and 2:30 in the mid-1950s.

“It reminded me of the game I grew up watching in the ’70s and ’80s,” said former outfielder Raúl Ibañez, now an MLB senior vice president.

Two infielders will be required to be on either side of the second and all infielders will be required to be inside the outer infield boundary when the pitcher is on the rubber. Infielders cannot change sides unless there is a substitution, but five-man infields will still be allowed, MLB Executive Vice President Morgan Sword said.

At-bats have shot up 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 at a rate of 68,000 this season.

“I think fans will appreciate the moments when there aren’t extreme defensive changes when games are decided not by whether their team’s infield is positioned by the perfect algorithm, but whether their team’s second baseman can throw an athletic throw. playing with everything on the line. Epstein said.

MLB’s season batting average dropped from .267 in 1997 to .243 this year, with a team’s run average dropping from 4.77 to 4.33.

“The game has evolved in a way that no one would have chosen if we had sat down 25 years ago to chart a path to the best version of baseball,” Epstein said. “Nobody would have asked that the fans have to wait more than four minutes for the balls to be put into play. No one would have asked for generational casualties and stolen bases, triples and doubles.”

Base size will increase from 15 to 18-inch squares; first basemen are less likely to be stepped on.

In addition, each team will be allowed a visit to the sixth mound in the ninth inning next year, if it has used five during the first eight innings.