Major League Baseball has announced a few rules changes for 2024. They are certainly not as drastic as the changes made last offseason and implemented in 2023, that added a pitch clock which made the game crisper, and eliminated the shift which made the game fairer.

Perhaps the biggest change is the widening of the running lane from home to first. As it has been from the dawn of time, the batter had to run inside the lane that was totally in foul territory, even though first base is totally in fair territory. It made for occasional awkwardness and caused a lot of pain and suffering for runners who were called out for interference, usually at critical times in critical games. Here is the description of that change:

“The Runner’s Lane will be widened to include the dirt area between the foul line and the infield grass. Widening the lane allows batters to take a more direct path to first base while retaining protection from interference.  The distance between the foul line and the infield grass will be between 18 and 24 inches in all parks, with some limited grace periods granted by MLB due to difficulty in modifying the field (e.g., synthetic turf field).”

Also changing is the time allotted between pitches with runners on base. Last year it was twenty seconds. With a runner on base, a pitcher had twenty seconds to release his pitch or he would be called for a pitch clock violation, an automatic ball. For 2024, that will now be eighteen seconds. From the CBS MLB site:

“Pitchers began their deliveries with an average of 7.3 seconds remaining on the 20-second timer in 2023. Pitchers retain the ability to step off and re-set the clock up to two times without penalty. Violations with runners on base were the least frequent (14% of all violations vs 32% of all pitches) in 2023. A universal 17-second Clock used for the final month of the Triple-A season did not increase violations with runners on base.”

Mound visits will be reduced from five per game to four. Again, from CBS MLB:

“Clubs averaged only 2.3 mound visits per game in 2023. Last season, 98% of games would not have exceeded a limit of four mound visits.  Umpires will also permit defensive players to signal for a mound visit without actually visiting the mound to further help improve pace of game.:

The other significant change is a bit confusing when you read it: Pitchers who warm up must face at least one batter. Apparently, this happened twenty-four times in 2023 during the regular season, twice during the World Series. What that means is, if a pitcher comes out of the bullpen, warms up on the mound, ready to face his first batter, he cannot be removed if, say, the other team counters with a pinch hitter. Even though it wasn’t that prevalent, it did make for some maddening baseball watching, especially between innings, as the broadcast breaks for its usual between-innings commercial, only to come back, see the manager walk to the mound, take out his pitcher without throwing a single pitch, then the broadcast has to break again while that new pitcher warms up. The language, “must face at least one batter” is a bit confusing because, if this happens at the beginning of an inning, that pitcher must face at least three batters, according to the rule change from few years ago. Where the pitcher could face just one batter is if he comes into the game in the middle of an inning and warmed up on the mound, now he cannot be immediately removed. He has to face at least one batter (if he, for instance, gets the third out of the inning then the three-batter rule doesn’t apply.) Clear as mud? According the CBS MLB, when this did occur in 2023, it added three minutes of dead time to the broadcast.

So, this holiday season, Major League Baseball is giving you the gift of time.