Who’s ready for some baseball?
Now that football is over and the NBA is in its All-Star Weekend, it’s time to start thinking about warmer temperatures and spring and baseball and hot dogs and all that good stuff.
Pitchers and catchers started to reporting to spring training this week, and before we know it we’ll be celebrating the start of a new MLB season.
Before we get there, though, we need to look at six big rule changes that are going into place this season and will have the game looking and feeling different.
Let’s rank them from weirdest to best.
6. The bases will be a lot bigger. (Super weird)
Yes, you read that correctly - the bases this season are going to be bigger. The bases will now be 18 inches by 18 inches instead of the 15-by-15 that we’ve seen basically forever. This was done to help prevent injuries for base runners and fielders.
Check them out:
Morry Gash/AP Photo.
5. Balks will be called more if pitchers make weird movements. (Kinda weird)
MLB wants to speed things up with a pitch clock (which we’ll get to shortly) and they want pitchers to stop doing a lot of unnecessary movements that could mess with the starting point of the pitch clock.
The new rule states a pitcher must have a clear point to begin his delivery in order to stop the pitch timer, and Garcia’s multiple steps and arm motions don’t provide that. The rule says the pitcher is permitted to take one step back (or laterally) and one step forward. Thus, taking multiple steps before lifting the free leg is now deemed an illegal pitch movement.
This will no longer be allowed:
4. Ghost runners in extra innings is permanent. (Weird but we’ve grown used to it)
The automatic runner on second base in extra innings will remain a thing in regular season games. I know a lot of people don’t like this rule but I’m a fan of it because sometimes extra innings can go on forever and lose all sense of drama. Let’s get these games over with!
3. Using position players to pitch will be harder to do. (This is good!)
I get that a lot of people think it’s fun when a position player comes in to pitch but it also leads to some really bad baseball. There will thankfully be new restrictions on when they can be used:
2. A pitch clock will be enforced and batters will have to keep up, too. (This is great!)
Baseball can get really slow. Now things will be sped up a bit with a pitch clock that will work as follows:
A pitcher has 15 seconds to throw a pitch when nobody is on base and that time will be bumped up to 20 seconds with runners on base.
Batters will have to hurry up, too:
Here’s a fun graphic that explains it:
1. The shift is dead. (This is the best!)
So long, shift! Well, kinda. Hopefully.
MLB has a lengthy explanation of that which you can find right here but let me give the gist of it:
With the new rule changes, defensive teams will be required to have a minimum of four players on the infield, with at least two infielders completely on either side of second base. These restrictions are intended to increase the batting average on balls in play, to allow infielders to better showcase their athleticism and to restore more traditional outcomes on batted balls. The league-wide batting average on balls in play of .290 in 2022 was six points lower than in 2012 and 10 points lower than in 2006.
Teams can still get creative, though:
Here's how that could look:
Should be an interesting year!
