More Change? MLB Wants To Tighten Pitch Clock Even More In 2024

In a stunning turn of events, it appears Major League Baseball is actually leaning into recent changes.

Is the league going too far, though?

In an effort to counteract a late-season trend that saw game times lengthen, MLB’s competition committee is weighing a proposal that would reduce the pitch clock from 20 seconds to 18 seconds when runners are on base, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. In the proposal, the 15-second clock without runners on base would remain the same but teams would be losing one mound visit, dropping the number from five to four.

The changes were proposed due to average time of game increasing by seven minutes late in the season.

No, seriously.

The average time of games sat at 2:37 in April and May, but jumped to 2:39 in June, 2:40 in July, 2:41 in August and 2:44 in September. That might seem alarming given the continued rise in time, but the results came as players learned to skirt the rule to their benefit and umpires becoming more relaxed to the rules.

There were 1,094 pitch-clock violations in 2023, but just 14% came with runners on base, according to Passan.

The rule would need to pass through the competition committee, which does include four players but is mostly made up of MLB team executives. That gives MLB the upper hand in any potential rule changes, plenty of which were passed through last season.