The pitch clock rules presently in force across Major League Baseball will remain unchanged for the 2023 postseason, ESPN reports.
According to various reports throughout the current season, a number of players had been hoping for additional time on the pitch clock to reflect the mental intensity of playoff baseball. However, that appears unlikely to happen:
On Friday, MLB’s owner-led executive council told the competition committee — a joint effort that includes players — the league would not propose any changes to rules before this postseason, sources said. The upshot: Same rules currently in play, as Tom Verducci first reported.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 1, 2023
The rules implemented in the majors prior to the current season are structured as followed:
- The clock is 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with a runner on base.
- The clock starts when the pitcher catches the ball from the catcher and runs until the pitcher starts his delivery (not when he releases the ball).
- The batter must step in the box and be ready to hit with at least eight seconds left on the clock.
- Violations by the pitcher are an automatic ball and by the hitter are an automatic strike.
- A hitter gets one timeout per plate appearance.
- A pitcher gets two "disengagements" per batter. This is either stepping off or a pickoff attempt. A third disengagement would result in a balk. The disengagement count resets if a runner advances, such as with a stolen base, balk, wild pitch or passed ball.
Without question, the pitch clock rules have had the desired effect of quickening pace of play, which has led to shorter games. For the 2022 season, which was played without a pitch clock at the major-league level, the average nine-inning game ran three hours and three minutes -- the seventh straight year in which the average game time was three hours or more. This season, that figure is down to two hours and 39 minutes, or the shortest average run time in MLB since 1985. Likely, MLB decision-makers are unwilling to put that progress at risk during the sport's signature stretch of schedule in October and November.
There is, of course, a chance that a pitch-clock violation could play a decisive role in a playoff game, and the optics of such an occurrence would be unfortunate, to put it mildly. The league, though, seems willing to tolerate that risk.
