Robo-ump challenge system, shift ban among experimental rules MLB to use in minors

(This story has been updated to include experimental rules announced on Tuesday that will be tested in the Atlantic League.)

Major League Baseball is once again preparing to roll out a slate of experimental rules across the minors this summer designed to speed up pace of play and increase action on the field. Rules that debuted at the lowest levels in recent years — including a pitch clock and a ban on defensive shifts — will be tweaked or expanded and a new use of robo umps for a challenge system will be tested for the first time.

Baseball players are better than ever, but baseball games are getting longer, slower and less athletic. A whole host of advancements have led to a sport dominated by walks, strikeouts, home runs and pitching changes. With concerns that the game is slipping in popularity — and caught in the throes of an existential crisis — it has become a priority of the commissioner’s office to address that for years now.

“I love our game,” Rob Manfred said at the news conference to announce a new collective bargaining agreement last week. “Having said that, since I've been commissioner, I’ve talked about the need to make changes in some of our rules to enhance the entertainment value of our product for the benefit of our fans.”

Last year, MLB culled some minor-league teams and consolidated the system under its umbrella, taking the opportunity to treat different levels as contained labs for specific potential rule changes, along with the independent-but-partnered Atlantic League, which had been the site of experiments in previous years.

Based on feedback from those experiments, the 2022 season will feature the following rules:

Pitch clock & pickoff limits

Pitch clocks at all affiliated levels. MLB has experimented with pitch clocks in the minors as early as 2015. Last season, pitchers in Double-A had 15 seconds with no one on base and 17 seconds with runners on. This season, pitchers will have 14 seconds with the bases empty and 19 seconds with runners on base at Triple-A, and 14 seconds with the bases empty and 18 seconds with runners on base at the lower levels. Batters, too, will be on the clock — they must be in the box and attentive to the pitcher with nine seconds left (this was eight seconds last year).

“We made both adjustments based on consensus feedback from players and staff — as well as our own observations — that a couple more seconds were occasionally needed with runners on base to make sure the pitcher and catcher could align on signs, but that we could spare a little time with the bases empty,” Theo Epstein, a consultant to MLB, told Yahoo Sports in an email. “We think this tradeoff makes sense for game flow and pitcher-catcher communication, and our models indicate it will preserve virtually all of the game-time savings and pace improvements we witnessed last season.”

Additionally, at all levels, pitchers can attempt to pick off runners only twice unsuccessfully before a third unsuccessful pickoff attempt or step-off within the same plate appearance will result in automatic baserunner advancement. According to MLB, these two rules shaved more than 20 minutes off games when they were used at select levels last season.

Bigger bases

Bigger bases, increased from 15 square inches to 18 square inches, will be used at all affiliated levels. MLB says that doing so resulted in fewer base-related injuries and a “modest” increase in the rate of successful stolen bases.

Defensive positioning

Defensive shifts will be banned — teams must have a minimum of four players on the infield, with at least two infielders completely on either side of second base — in Double-A, High-A and Low-A. This represents an expansion of the rule from last season, when it was used just in Double-A and initially only stipulated that all four infielders had to be on the dirt.

Studying the impact of this rule change will go beyond just looking at the resultant BABIP of different kinds of players. The analytics team tasked with taking a comprehensive look at the impact of defensive positioning rules will consider how the changing incentives influences hitters’ approach and the counter-approach of pitchers.

“In addition to the measurable impacts of defensive positioning rules on batted balls, there are some less tangible effects that are also important even if they are more difficult to quantify. First, defensive positioning restrictions allow infielders to more frequently showcase their athleticism and make exciting plays at the extremes of their range,” Epstein said. “Baseball is arguably a better and more exciting game when the outcomes on balls in play are determined by the skills and smarts of an infielder, not the accuracy of a front office’s positioning algorithm. Defensive positioning restrictions may also place a renewed premium on range and athleticism for player personnel decisions at certain positions, such as second base, where frequent shifting has allowed clubs recently to get away with some bat-first, less athletic players who have not traditionally played middle infield.”

Epstein also touted the shift ban for promoting “more traditional aesthetics for the game and more familiar outcomes on certain batted balls.”

Robo umps

Automated ball-strike calls, or so-called robo umps, are reaching Triple-A for the first time. Used in the Atlantic League in 2019 and in select games in Low-A Southeast and the Arizona Fall League in 2021, the ABS system will be used to call pitches this season in Triple-A West and Triple-A East games played in Charlotte, with a strike zone that “will approximate the strike zone called by high-level umpires.”

New this year, MLB will test a “Challenge” system in Low-A Southeast. A (human) umpire will call balls and strikes, but the pitcher, catcher and batter have an ability to appeal the umpire’s call to the ABS system. Each team will receive three appeals, with successful appeals retained.

Epstein says this will allow for the most important benefits of ABS: correcting clear misses and adjudicating high-leverage close calls.

“However, under the challenge format, home plate umpires still call balls and strikes and get to manage the game the way an automated system cannot,” he says. “This could alleviate potential concerns about over-automation and mitigate the potential negative consequences of the inelasticity of a full-time ABS strike zone in certain game situations such as blowouts.”

Under the new CBA, the window for making rule changes at the major league level is shorter than it has been. Historically, the commissioner has had — but rarely used, preferring to reach a consensus with players — the power to unilaterally implement new rules with a full year of notice. Starting in 2023, a new competition committee will decide on rule changes that can be implemented with 45 days of notice to the union.

The committee will be comprised of four active players, six league appointees and an MLB umpire, but since the league has a perpetual majority this amounts to an ability to enact the rule changes it sees fit within a single offseason. The rules that are in the experimental stage for now could be coming to a big league ballpark near you by 2023.

The 'double-hook' DH and dropped strikes

Outside the confines of the affiliated minor leagues, the Atlantic League will test the “double-hook” designated hitter rule, by which teams will lose their DH when they remove the starting pitcher. This was in effect last year, but new this season is a stipulation where teams can keep their DH for the entirety of the game if the starter goes at least five innings.

Also in the Atlantic League, batters can attempt to run to first base on any pitch not caught in the air (as opposed to just the third strike). This was tested back in 2019 to frustration among Atlantic League players. The rule requiring pitchers to step off the rubber to throw over — which particularly disadvantaged lefties — has been dropped.