Refresh on Pace of Play Tweaks Before Opening Day

Major League Baseball (MLB) was rocked last year when dramatic pace of play changes, headlined by the addition of a pitch clock, were implemented, altering America’s pastime. And more adjustments are on the way for the 2024 season.

In December, the MLB announced modifications to the league’s rules that were approved by the Competition Committee—which was created in 2022 and comprises six owners, four players and one umpire—to be adopted beginning this year. Many, but not all, of these alterations are once again related to shortening game lengths. As Spring Training ramps up and Opening Day approaches, fans may need a refresher about what’s new (other than those controversial uniforms) this season.

Here’s everything to know about the new rules.

Pitch Clock, Pace of Play Changes for 2024

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was rewarded with his long-desired outcome last season after the league made sweeping pace-of-play changes—games went faster. Over the 2023 campaign, according to USA Today, nine-inning games averaged two hours and 39 minutes, which was down almost half an hour from the 2022 season and was the shortest of any year since 1985.

But the league thinks it can do better.

The Competition Committee’s further changes for 2024 include several that will impact game speed—particularly for pitchers. An average nine-inning game time increased by seven minutes from April to September last year, the league said, and these are MLB’s solutions to address that:

• Timing between pitches: Time on the pitch clock with runners on base has been reduced from 20 seconds to 18. MLB claimed that pitchers began their deliveries with an average of 7.3 seconds remaining on the 20-second timer in 2023, and that violations with runners on base were the least frequent. Pitchers will retain the ability, the league said, to step off the mound and reset the clock up to two times without penalty.

• Making pitching changes: According to the league, “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.” Inning breaks that included a pitching change last season averaged two minutes and 35 seconds, MLB said.

• Pitchers who warm up must face at least one hitter: Any pitcher sent to warm up for an inning must face at least one batter—in addition to any requirements under the three-batter minimum—the committee announced in its rules release. The league said there were 24 instances in 2023 where the pitcher who warmed up between innings was replaced before throwing a pitch—adding roughly three minutes of dead time per game.

• Mound visits: The number of mound visits permitted to each team per game will be reduced from five to four, plus an extra in the ninth inning if the defensive team has zero remaining at the end of the eighth. Clubs averaged only 2.3 mound visits per game in 2023, the league said, and 98 percent of games would not have exceeded a limit of four.

• Circumvention: The field timing coordinator will now restart the timer after a dead ball when the pitcher has the ball and play is ready to resume, MLB said. Per the league’s announcement, “There will no longer be a requirement for the pitcher to be on the mound, removing the pitcher’s ability to delay the start of the timer by walking around the edge of the mound.”

“These modifications will improve on last year’s work by the Competition Committee, which was a resounding success with our fans and for the sport,” said John Stanton, chairman of the Competition Committee and Seattle Mariners, in the MLB’s release announcing the rules. “I want to thank the Commissioner’s Office, the Players Association and the Major League Umpires for their dedication to the greatest game ever invented.”

However, these changes in particular were not met positively by the league’s players’ association.

After MLB released its rule alterations for 2024, Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) Executive Director Tony Clark said the committee’s player representatives voted against the proposed modifications.

“As they made clear in the competition committee, players strongly feel that, following last season’s profound changes to the fundamental rules of the game, immediate additional changes are unnecessary and offer no meaningful benefits to fans, players, or the competition on the field,” he said in a statement released December 21. “This season should be used to gather additional data and fully examine the health, safety, and injury impacts of reduced recovery time; that is where our focus will be.”

MLB in its release said the committee agreed to table separate proposals on blocking bases and pitching deliveries for further discussion, and based on player feedback the league withdrew a proposal that would have required the home plate umpire to immediately reset the pitch clock after a batter called timeout.

Runner’s Lane to Be Widened

Pace of play changes aren’t the only slight differences to MLB’s 2024 rule book.

The runner’s lane will be widened this season to include the dirt area between the foul line and the infield grass—a move that may be celebrated by right-handed hitters who now have a more direct path toward first base. In all parks, with some limited grace periods granted to allow for field modifications, the distance between the foul line and infield grass will be between 18 and 24 inches, which MLB says will allow batters to take a more direct path to first while retaining protection from interference.

Under the new rule, this runner’s lane will still be chalked to ensure that runners do not drift too far into foul territory. From an umpire’s perspective, the league said the simplicity of “dirt good, grass bad” will make for an easier evaluation tool.