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At the beginning of the season, the implementation of new rule changes dominated the conversation surrounding baseball.

There was a pitch clock for the first time ever — probably the most controversial of all the changes, though a month into the season, a few MLB players had come to appreciate it — and the bigger bases went viral on social media as they were compared to pizza boxes. There was also the elimination of the shift and a limit to how many times a pitcher could disengage from the rubber.

Now, as we near the end of the 2023 regular season — and prepare for the first MLB postseason with the new rules in play — the impact these changes have had on the game of baseball itself has become incredibly clear.

Game time is down, while all the things that make baseball fun are up. With 97% of the season completed, batting average is up six points (.249) from 2022, batting average on balls in play is up seven points (.297) and on-base percentage is up eight points (.320). We also saw an increase in runs per game (from 8.6 last season to 9.3 in 2023) and stolen base attempts (1.4 to 1.8). On top of that, average attendance is up 9.15%, the biggest one-year increase across the league in 30 years, according to MLB.

Now that we have almost a full 162-game slate to draw from, we asked ESPN MLB experts Buster Olney, Jesse Rogers and Alden Gonzalez to give their takeaways on the rule changes — from what they have heard from players and managers to one rule change they think could come to baseball next.


What’s one stat or number that best sums up the impact of this year’s rule changes?

Olney: Twenty-four. That’s the number of minutes that the average game time has been reduced by, which is a monumental change. There are still nine innings and 54 outs, but that action is crammed into a game duration that is 15% shorter than it was in the past. It’s clear from attendance figures and television ratings that fans have responded to the new product.

Rogers: Some would assume the answer would be time of game, but that doesn’t impact the on-field product. Last year, the Texas Rangers led the majors in stolen bases with 128. This season, nine teams already have more than that number and two more are likely to surpass it as well. And the success rate on steals, 80.2%, is the highest in the history of the game.

Gonzalez: The increase in stolen-base frequency serves as a good gauge because it’s a product of several new rules — the bigger bases, the limits on disengagements and, to some degree, the pitch clock. MLB noted that stolen-base attempts increased to 1.8 per game in 2023, up from 1.4 in 2022. If you don’t think that’s a lot — well, it is. Fans want shorter games at a quicker pace, certainly. But the stolen base was a real void in recent years. It’s all the way back now, and that’s a really good thing.


What have you heard most about the rule changes from players and managers?

Olney: A few players and managers — most of them older guys — quietly complain about some of the new rules, especially the pitch clock. But the vast majority of those in the industry (players, coaches, managers, umpires, clubhouse attendants, stadium workers) seem to love the changes. Especially the shorter games.

Rogers: Pitchers would like the ability to step off with no one on base without it being counted as a mound visit. Hitters get a timeout with runners on or when the bases are empty. Why can’t a pitcher?

Gonzalez: I heard several complaints from players about the new rules early in the season — pitchers on having to juggle the pitch clock and the disengagement limits while also focusing on how to attack their opponents, and hitters on needing more time to get settled into the batter’s box. But pitch timer violations went from 0.87 per game within the first 100 games to 0.34 per game in a very recent stretch of 100 games, according to MLB.com. In other words: Players adjust.


Who has benefited the most — and least — from the rule changes?

Olney: The young fans, I think, have benefitted the most. My 19-year-old sports crazy son is a great focus group of one for me, and perhaps his experience this year mirrors that of a lot of his generation. In the past, the idea of sitting through a whole game was not something that ever interested him because he felt the action lagged. He hated waiting for slow-working pitchers to get on the mound. But this year, with the average game time comparable to an NBA or hockey game, he constantly watched games from beginning to end.

Those who benefited the least: hitters. I think there was a broad assumption that position players would get a little more production boost in light of the shift restrictions, but that really didn’t happen. Until baseball makes rules limiting the high volume of relief pitchers, there probably won’t be a big spike in offense.

Rogers: There’s little doubt that anyone who is a stolen base threat has benefitted. Nico Hoerner jumped from 20 stolen bases in 2022 to over 40 this season. Ha-Seong Kim from 12 to 36. Willi Castro from nine to over 30. The list goes on and on of players who are setting career highs in steals due to the bigger bases and the new disengagement rules.

Gonzalez: I’ll throw another group that benefited into the mix: left-handed hitters. Not all of them, of course, but the shift restrictions have prevented teams from implementing extreme shifts on pull-happy lefties. Batting average on balls in play by left-handed hitters was .285 from 2020 to 2022. This year, it’s .295. Corey Seager was looked upon as somebody who would greatly benefit from the shift restrictions, and he’d be making a serious run at MVP right now if not for Shohei Ohtani (another left-handed hitter, by the way).


How much will the new rules impact the MLB playoffs next month?

Olney: For years, we’ve heard complaints about how some fans couldn’t stay up to watch the entirety of playoff and World Series games that continued past midnight. Well, this will be a different experience. Because of the extra commercial time, postseason games will still be longer than regular season games — but not always the 4 1⁄2-hour behemoths we’ve seen in past Octobers. And teams will run more in the postseason than they did during the regular season, taking advantage of the limits on pick-off attempts.

Rogers: Here’s how Atlanta Braves starter Spencer Strider thinks the new rules will impact baseball in October: “The strategy is what’s at stake more than the effects of the rule. I see it as we have a really big pitch coming up and everyone’s a little too nervous to take a moment or take a mound visit, especially early in the game. And you make a pitch that we wouldn’t have otherwise made had we had the time to talk about it.”

Gonzalez: That remains to be seen. A lot has been said — by players and some of their agents — about lengthening or eliminating the pitch clock in the playoffs, or perhaps just in the late innings. That won’t happen, of course. And while I understand the need for continuity, I would hate to see a postseason game decided by a pitch timer violation. It’s fine if it happens occasionally within the 2,430 games that are played from April to September. But not in October. Hopefully the players are adjusted enough by then to render this moot.


What’s one rule change you think could come to baseball next?

Olney: The sport desperately needs to restore the preeminence of starting pitchers. For the players’ association, it’s an important financial issue because, historically, starting pitchers have been instrumental in pushing salary ceilings. For MLB, there is a need for day-to-day headliners to market the sport — matchups akin to Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens, Madison Bumgarner vs. Clayton Kershaw.

The parade of relief pitchers designed to exploit matchup advantages is not a compelling product — just as four-hour games did not make for a compelling product — and the lords of the sport know this. But making changes in this realm will be very hard, given that relief pitchers now make up an enormous proportion of the union.

Rogers: Automatic balls and strikes still need some perfecting, so some smaller rules are in play, such as the runner’s lane to first. This has always been confusing when it comes to calling interference on the runner. The league is likely to tweak the rule so that the burden isn’t completely on the runner, who isn’t attempting to interfere with the play in the first place.

Gonzalez: Full-on automatic balls and strikes might still be a ways away, but I can definitely see a challenge system for balls and strikes coming in the near future. It’s a nice, happy medium. Umpires get the vast majority of these calls right, regardless of what you might interpret from social media; what we need to eliminate are the obvious misses, especially in critical spots. The challenge system does that, while implementing another cool strategic component to the game. It’s also incredibly fast.

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.

After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.

“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.

For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.

When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.

“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”

After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.

“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.

Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.

“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”

After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.

Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.

Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.

“Not bad,” he said.

Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.

After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.

“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”

Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.

“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”

Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.

Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.

“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”

Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.

Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.

“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”

In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.

Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.

“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”

Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.

“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.

As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.

Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.

But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.

Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.

This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

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Dodgers go to 6-man rotation amid Ohtani return

BOSTON — Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani is expected to start on the mound Wednesday as he continues his buildup from elbow surgery that kept him from pitching all last season.

Manager Dave Roberts said Sunday before the Dodgers faced the Boston Red Sox in the finale of their three-game series that the plan is for Ohtani to work four innings at Cincinnati, with an off day to recover before hitting in a game.

With the Japanese superstar working his way back along with left-hander Blake Snell, who pitched 4⅔ innings on Saturday in his fourth rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City, the Dodgers will be using a six-man rotation.

They currently have Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Emmet Sheehan in the rotation.

“Shohei is going to go on Wednesday and then he’ll probably pitch the following Wednesday, so that probably lends itself to the six-man,” Roberts said.

In Ohtani’s last start, he allowed one run and four hits in three innings against Minnesota on July 22. He struck out three and walked one, throwing 46 pitches, 30 for strikes.

Roberts said this season is sort of a rehab year in the big leagues and doesn’t foresee the team extending Ohtani’s workload deep into games for a while.

“I think this whole year on the pitching side is sort of rehab, maintenance,” he said. “We’re not going to have the reins off where we’re going to say: ‘Hey you can go 110 pitches.’ I don’t see that happening for quite some time. I think that staying at four [innings] for a bit, then build up to five and we’ll see where we can go from there.”

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