Major League Baseball Announces More Changes for 2024 Season

Major League Baseball on Wednesday announced even more changes are coming to baseball next season that aim to speed up gameplay and keep fans interested in America's favorite pastime. The new rules build off notable changes to the game that were introduced last year, including a pitch clock, which gave pitchers a limited amount of time to throw the next ball.

Changes include an even shorter pitch clock, a wider lane for runners going to first base, and more rules affecting pitchers.

A news release detailed the changes for the 2024 season that were agreed upon by the Competition Committee, which is comprised of six owners, four players, and an umpire. The committee was created as part of a 2022 collective bargaining agreement.

"From its inception, the joint Competition Committee's constructive conversations between players, umpires and owners have produced rules that significantly improved the game for fans," said John Stanton, Chairman of the Competition Committee and Chairman of the Seattle Mariners.

"These modifications will improve on last year's work by the Competition Committee, which was a resounding success with our fans and for the sport."

Here's what changes are coming to the field in 2024.

The Runner's Lane Widened in Upcoming MLB Season

In an effort to provide batters with a more direct path to first base and reduce interference in gameplay, the runner's lane will be widened in the upcoming season. The lane will now include the dirt area between the foul line and the grass on the infield. This new rule, which requires the distance between the foul line and the infield grass to be between 18 and 24 inches in all MLB baseball parks, overrides a previous rule from 1882 that confined players to a 3-foot box on the foul side of the base line during the final stretch between home base and first base.

Pitching Changes Aim to Increase Pacing

Following the success of the 2023 changes that reduced game time, the MLB committee is implementing additional changes in 2024 to further increase the pacing. One of these changes involves the pitch clock, which is being refreshed. Previously, pitchers had 20 seconds to throw the next pitch when a runner was on base and 15 seconds when no runners were on base. Now, pitchers will only have 18 seconds to throw the next ball with runners on base.

MLB Implements New Pitching Rules

The MLB has announced several new rules regarding pitching in the upcoming season. One of the changes includes restarting the pitch clock after a "dead ball" situation, such as a foul ball, when previously it only began when the pitcher reached the mound.

Another change involves reducing the number of visits to the pitcher's mound from five to four per game. However, an extra mound visit will be awarded in the ninth inning if the defensive team has no remaining visits at the end of the eighth inning.

According to MLB, mound visits are often disliked by fans, and last season, 98% of games would not have exceeded the limit of four mound visits.

Furthermore, a new rule states that any pitcher who warms up at the start of an inning must throw to at least one batter before being removed from the mound. This rule was implemented due to 24 instances in the 2023 season where a pitcher who warmed up between innings was replaced before throwing a ball, resulting in approximately three minutes of dead time per event. Two of these instances occurred during the 2023 World Series.

Lastly, MLB decided to withdraw a proposal that would have required the home plate umpire to immediately reset the pitch clock after a batter called timeout, citing player feedback.