Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB Players Association, said Saturday that the decision to shorten pitch time by two seconds with runners on base was premature.
“That should have warranted a much longer conversation than the one we had,” Clark said, via The Associated Press. “We expressed those concerns, the players expressed those concerns, and yet the pitch clock change was enforced.”
As part of a new rules package for the 2023 season, a pitch clock will be introduced, giving pitchers 15 seconds to start their action if the bases are empty and 20 seconds if a runner is on base.
In December, the league competition committee, which is made up of six owners, four players and one umpire, approved reducing the time on base for runners to 18 seconds starting with the 2024 season.
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Clark issued a statement after the vote saying the committee's player representatives did not approve of the new rules, which include wider lanes for runners to first base and fewer mound visits per game. issued a statement.
“We just made the biggest adjustment in the history of this league in terms of game time and impact on games with the clock,” Clark said. “Rather than give us another year to adjust and adapt, why adjust again and what will be the results?”
According to MLB, the rules package introduced for the 2023 season reduced the average game time from 24 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes.
The reason the league tried to shorten the time between pitches by putting runners on base was because the average game time increased over the course of last season. Match time increased month on month from his average of 2 hours 37 minutes in April to his average of 2 hours 44 minutes in September where he finished 7 minutes faster.
According to ESPN, 14% of the 1,094 pitching clock violations occurred with runners on base, and on average pitchers started their moves with 6.5 seconds left on a 15-second clock and 7.3 seconds left on a 20-second clock. .
Another factor that unions oppose shortening the pitch by two seconds is the recovery time for pitchers between pitches.
“When you're tired, you're more likely to get injured,” Clark says. “We're seeing a lot of injuries and we're at a point where we can't shake the question of whether it's in everyone's best interest to shorten the recovery time.”
Clark has a lot more work to do this spring training than changing the pitch clock. He covers the situation with the Oakland A's, the prospects of players competing in the 2028 Olympics, and player backlash against new uniforms made by Fanatics.
