Changes to baseball’s on-field product can now be made with 45 days’ notice after a vote by a committee comprising management officials, players and an umpire. Previously, MLB could unilaterally change its on-field rules by giving players one year’s notice.
This new rule kicks in after the 2022 season, meaning several on-field changes almost certainly will go into effect in 2023:
Larger bases: MLB wants to make the bases bigger — from 15 square inches to 18 — to help runners avoid collisions with fielders, increase the number of stolen bases and help runners avoid over-sliding bases.
Limiting defensive shifts: Over the past few years, defenses have increasingly moved players to one side of the field to take away the side where offensive players most frequently hit the ball. Whether banning this practice would help batters improve their numbers is a matter of ardent debate, but the owners feel that limiting shifts would have a positive aesthetic influence on the sport by increasing in-game action.
Pitch clock: To speed up the game, pitchers would have 14 seconds to send the ball to the plate with no runners on base and 19 seconds to pitch with runners on base.
MLB owners were pushing for all of these rule changes, and because ownership will occupy six of the 10 spots on the rule-change committee, they are almost certain to pass ahead of the 2023 season.
