SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- We know how Major League Baseball’s new rules for 2023 look on paper. But how will they look in practice? The arrival of the pitch timer, restrictions on extreme infield shifts and bigger bases combine for the most significant alterations to MLB rules in decades, and that’s

Baseball’s new era arrived as many new eras do. With a lot of intrigue and a little awkwardness. With the excited embrace of some, the miffed objections of others and the ultimate conclusion that the game -- and the world -- will, indeed, go on. It’s Spring Training, so --

The 2023 Major League Baseball season brings a wave of rules changes collectively aimed at improving the game’s pace of play and increasing action on the field. The arrival of the pitch timer, restrictions on defensive shifts and bigger bases makes for one of the more ambitious adaptations to the

This year, Spring Training will not just be about players showing up in the “best shape of their lives” and “getting their work in” and uttering all of our other favorite camp clichés. We are about to embark upon a spring exhibition season unlike any other in baseball’s history. Because

This story was originally published during the 2022 season, but we are resurfacing it in light of the announced rule changes for 2023.

Earlier this winter, we dug into the upcoming positioning ban, attempting to use Statcast data to identify which hitters might benefit the most from the new rules. As we discussed at the time, it’s complicated -- mostly because teams can still position intelligently within the rules, and because we don’t

HOUSTON -- The slugger went deep, then the console went beep. As Central Missouri infielder John Prudhom crossed home plate Saturday after hitting a towering two-run home run in the first inning of a game at the Houston Winter Invitational at Minute Maid Park, Billy Cannon pressed the button that

Nestor Cortes walked down the mound, received the throw back from his catcher and did what so many of his pitching heroes would do. He took a short stroll through the grass around the mound, thought about the next pitch and what he wanted to do with it, then climbed

One of the most intriguing storylines heading into the 2023 MLB season is how the new rules being implemented will impact the game. With new infield shift restrictions, a pitch timer and larger bases among the changes this year, it will be exciting to watch the resulting effects. MLB Network

This story was originally published earlier this season, but we are resurfacing it today in light of the announced rule changes for 2023.

The changes coming to Major League Baseball in 2023 -- the pitch timer, defensive shift limits and bigger bases -- are significant. Merely reading about them creates a feeling of unfamiliarity. But are they unprecedented? Hardly.

Baseball is back now, and that is always the best possible news at this time of year, with players on the field in Florida and Arizona. Here is even better news: The game is going to be better this season. It just is, because of three important changes that have

After the MLB Players Association suggested in a statement that the latest rules changes – specifically relating to the pitch timer – were to blame for the recent rash of pitching injuries, Major League Baseball responded with a statement of its own Saturday night. “This statement [from the MLBPA] ignores

Grant Holmes hooked the breaking ball into the corner of the strike zone. The umpire didn’t think so. Sandy León, Holmes’ catcher with Triple-A Gwinnett, had faith. León used an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge, which showed the curveball touching the zone on the upper-outside edge. With a technological assist on

With the pitch timer, defensive shift restrictions and bigger bases, the 2023 MLB season featured arguably the most ambitious series of rules changes since the dawn of the game’s Modern Era. This year’s changes? Much more subtle. But because these modifications will still impact what we’re watching on a daily

In an effort to target egregious blocking of the bases by defenders, Major League Baseball has provided guidance to its umpires on an existing rule that targets obstruction of the runner’s path. Existing Rule 6.00(h) awards the base to the runner when the fielder is ruled to have impeded the

Major League Baseball is opening the express lane to first base by modifying what had been among its most confusing rules. The joint Competition Committee voted Thursday to approve a widening of the runner’s lane to include the dirt between the foul line and the infield grass. The committee also

Stolen bases are back with a vengeance in 2023. MLB teams are stealing 41% more bases this season than they did in 2022. There have been more steals in 2023 than in any year since 1987. And teams have been successful over 80% of the time -- more than 4

One hundred years from now, when baseball historians ruminate on the 2023 season while dodging dust storms in their Mars colonies, we can guess what they are most likely to observe. With due respect to the great individual and team achievements we’ve witnessed and will yet witness this year, it’s

We're almost at the end of the 2023 regular season, and we can now say for sure: The stolen base is back. With the new rules encouraging base-stealing, a whole lot of players are checking off stolen-base milestones like they never have before. Let's take a look at the biggest

Catchers, look away. With Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott's steal in the fourth inning at Citizens Bank Park on Friday, Major League Baseball recorded its 3,000th stolen base of the season, and reaching that mark is a notable milestone. While not a first in and of itself, it's been a

Think of an MLB star's Baseball Savant page as the back of a Statcast baseball card. At the very top of that Baseball Savant page is a snapshot of how the player is performing in all of the key Statcast stats, powered by Google Cloud, and how he stacks up

Here’s the setup: In May, a middling team abruptly installs a top catching prospect into a starting role and, seemingly overnight, its season is transformed. In fact, the club starts to look like a contender. That sounds awfully familiar, but the script is a little different this time around. A