With the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) set to expire on Dec. 1, Major League Baseball and the Players Association have been working against the clock to reach a new deal in order to avoid a work stoppage.
A new CBA — whenever agreed upon by the sides — figures to bring rule changes to the sport next season, including the highly anticipated pitch clock that is intended to speed up games.
A 15-second clock timer previously was experimented with in the Minors and now has found its way to the Arizona Fall League. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has been encouraged with the results thus far and continued to hint at the possibility of one coming to the big leagues.
Beyond shortening game times, Manfred believes the implementation of a pitch clock will add a new element of strategy to games, via Ronald Blum of the Associated Press:
“Certainly encouraging,” Manfred said. “Game times in the 2:40s, which is a really sort of nice number when you think about it in comparison to where we’ve been. I think maybe more important than that is that people that go and watch the games feel like the pace of the game, the action in the game has really been improved, that it actually alters the requirement of moving along pitching, kind of changes the game the way it’s played a little bit. And that would be a useful change for us.”
While MLB tested out numerous rule changes across the Minors this season, the pitch clock was exclusive to Low-A West games. In 316 nine-inning games with a pitch timer, the average time of game was two hours and 41 minutes.
By comparison, in the 91 games played without a pitch clock, the average time of game was three hours and two minutes.
Other potential rule changes that could come to MLB
In addition to the pitch clock, other potential rule changes that could come to MLB as soon as next season include limited pickoff attempts and the elimination of shifts.
Manfred previously indicated that the league plans to do away with seven-inning doubleheaders and the extra innings rule that starts with a runner on second base, which were introduced during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
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