YORK, Pa. — It’s Opening Day for America’s pastime and all 30-Major League teams are in action!
This year, there is a lot of buzz surrounding new rules in the big leagues. The rules will be new to many, but some local fans may recognize the upcoming changes.
There are three new rules the Major League added for the 2023 season.
1. Bigger bases: Increasing the bags from 15 to 18 inches
2. A pitch clock: To pick up the speed of the game
3. Restrictions on shifts: There must be two players on each side of second base and all infielders must have their feet on the dirt before a ball is pitched.
If these rules sound familiar, you're not alone. If you’ve gone to a York Revolution or Lancaster Barnstormers game you've seen the larger bases and shift rule. In short, you’ve already had a chance to see the rule changes firsthand.
“We’re thrilled that we could provide that service to Major League Baseball and help them determine, potentially the future of the game and ways to improve it and increase the appeal to baseball," said Doug Eppler, York Revolution's director of marketing and communications.
The new rules are also tested in the Atlantic League so they don't disturb the Major League farm system.
“They were in the recognition that baseball needs to evolve from time to time, like all the other sports need to, to stay current and keep people enthused and excited," Epple continued. "Major League Baseball recognized that need to make some of those tweaks. They wanted to do so in an environment that was going to be comparable to their games without impacting their games.”
In some ways, the future of baseball lies with testing in the Atlantic League, and the league isn’t going anywhere.
In fact, it’s growing, adding another team this year from Fredrick, Maryland.
The partnership with MLB has been around for several years and was made official in 2020, becoming the first professional baseball partnership. It’s one way they can observe the effects before the potential use in the majors.
In the previous season, the majors added another Atlantic League test rule, the three players per pitcher rule, to help speed up games and ensuring one batter didn't face multiple pitchers.
Another rule that's making its way through the levels is the robo-ump. That also started in the Atlantic League and is now being tested in Triple-A.
Just because you’re seeing those rules adopted by the majors doesn’t mean they’re finished. We’re expecting to have an announcement in the coming weeks about a few more experimental rule changes.