Revealing the MLB Rule Changes for the 2024 Season
As part of its efforts to protect players and increase the pace of play, Major League Baseball (MLB) introduced several rule changes in 2023. The league made bases bigger to reduce risk of player collisions, particularly at first base, and introduced a pitch timer, giving pitchers 15 seconds to begin their pitching motion with no runners on base and 20 seconds with bases occupied. These changes had the desired effect, with nine-inning games lasting an average of 2 hours and 39 minutes, the lowest since 1985.
Prior to the start of the 2024 season, MLB made a couple of other minor rule changes, detailed below.
Reducing the Pitch Timer with Runners on Base
Pitchers in 2024 have two fewer seconds to start throwing the ball toward home plate than they did in 2023. The league decreased the pitch time with no runners on base from 20 to 18 seconds in response to pitchers figuring out ways to work around the timer in 2023. Partly because of this, games lasted an average of seven minutes longer in the final month of the 2023 season than they did in the first month.
The league decided the decrease wouldn't negatively affect pitchers either, since, on average, they began their deliveries with 7.3 seconds left on the pitch clock. Pitchers also still can reset the clock two times per at bat by either stepping off the mound or attempting a pickoff.
Other Pace of Play Adjustments
The league is also trying to speed things up between innings. It is implementing a new rule to reset the inning break clock to 2 minutes rather than the previous 2 minutes, 15 seconds, when a new pitcher comes from the bullpen onto the warning track. Last season, ending breaks with a pitching change lasted an average of 2 minutes, 35 seconds.
There's also no longer a requirement for pitchers to be on the mound for the pitch clock to start following a dead ball. Pacing around the mound area was one of the ways in which pitchers circumvented the pitch timer in 2023. Also in 2024, teams can only make four mound visits, down from five the year prior.
Widening the Runner's Lane to First Base
MLB also widened the runner's lane to first base to include all dirt on both the left and right side of the foul line. This will particularly benefit right-handed batters who, under the previous rule, had to run at least halfway to first base between the foul line and an adjacent line three feet to the right. This slight reduction in distance to first base for right-handed hitters could result in more players beating out infield ground balls.