A Look at How the New MLB Pace of Play Rules Worked in 2015

With the 2016 baseball season closing in, here’s a look to see how the new MLB pace of play rules worked out during the 2015 season.

Before the 2015 MLB season, new commissioner Rob Manfred made clear his intentions to speed up the game by adding new “pace of play” rules, in an effort to shorten game times. Those rules involved three major components: there would be a 2 minute and 25 second-long break between innings and pitching changes (that time would be pushed to 2 minutes and 45 seconds for nationally televised games); batters must keep one foot in the batter’s box, except after certain circumstances (swings or checked swings, foul balls, umpire-granted timeouts, wild pitches, and pitches that brush back the hitter); and managers must stay in the dugout when requesting a challenge, and a challenge must be requested within 30 seconds of the original call.

Overall, those rules did work, as the average major league game lasted 2 hours and 56 minutes in 2015, down about six minutes compared to games in 2014. The National League and the American League played very similar game times last season, although the average American League game lasted just about two minutes longer than the typical National League game. To get a deeper look at these rules, I watched four random games from last season to see how times differed between the leagues. Each game featured two different teams, in different months of the year, with different umpires behind home plate. The four games are:

April 19th, Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants, Umpire: Dan Iassogna
June 4th, Baltimore Orioles at Houston Astros, Umpire: Brian Gorman
July 25th, Cincinnati Reds at Colorado Rockies, Umpire: Bob Davidson
August 18th, Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers, Umpire: James Hoye

More from San Francisco Giants

• Thank you SF Giants for a fun, wild, surprising 2020 season
• SF Giants lose in heartbreaking fashion and miss 2020 MLB playoffs
• SF Giants: Mike Yastrzemski named 2020 Willie Mac Award recipient
• SF Giants: Chadwick Tromp placed on IL with shoulder strain
• SF Giants: Tuesday’s game against the Seattle Mariners postponed

From the beginning, hitters stepping out of the box wasn’t a great issue. In the first game between Arizona and San Francisco, there were eight combined step outs (seven by Giants’ hitters). In the second game between the Orioles and Astros, that number dropped down to six (five by Orioles’ batters). In the Cincinnati and Colorado contest, there were no un-permitted step outs. In the final of the four games, Rangers and Mariners’ offensive players combined for four step outs, split evenly between the teams at two apiece.

Among the four games, only two plays were reviewed, both coming in the Cincinnati-Colorado game and both involving Reds’ speedster Billy Hamilton. In both instances, Hamilton was thrown out at a base (once at first and once at home), and after deliberation among his staff, manager Bryan Price decided to have the umpire crew take a closer look within 30 seconds of the initial call, and without leaving the dugout, as the rules state. After quick reviews (both well under a minute, which was not normal for replay reviews in 2015), the original call was overturned.

In another instance during the Giants-Diamondbacks game, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy had his staff look at a close play, but eventually decided not to challenge. The exchange took less than the allotted 30 seconds.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

The biggest discrepancy between rules and results came from time between innings. In the 67 inning changes between the four games, only 27 matched or fell under the 2:25 mark, good for about 40 percent. There were six pitching changes in the middle of an inning, and two came in under the allotted time. But upon closer inspection, there were a lot of variables that played a part in that time.

In the American League games, the average time between innings was 2:27, while the National League’s average was 2:43, and the reasons for that difference are easy to understand. On the NL side, there is no designated hitter, so obviously, the pitchers have to take their own at-bats. When the pitcher has to prepare to bat, it will add some time between innings, as the pitcher will have to put on a helmet, batting gloves, and chalk up a bat.

During the two games in which pitchers took their own hacks, the starters made the third out of an inning as a hitter five times. Additionally, they were on deck or in the hole four other times. Obviously, it will take a pitcher a little longer to prepare to pitch again after they have had to prepare to hit. National League starting pitchers (relievers didn’t take any at-bats in the two games) took 2:37 between innings, while American League starters took 2:27.

Live Feed

That Balls Outta Here

There was also a fairly substantial time difference between pitchers going to the mound from the dugout compared to entering from the bullpen, which makes sense as well. Pitchers who entered the game from the dugout (starters, and relievers going into their second of work) took, on average, 2:28 to warm up between innings while pitchers entering from the bullpen (relievers getting their first taste of action on the day) needed 2:58 to get loose, a full half-minute difference. The greater distance from bullpen mound to game mound has that impact.

Based on these numbers, Commissioner Manfred could accomplish two goals with one quite significant change to the game. Even though the American League teams played a slightly longer game last season, there was noticeably less dead-time in their version. Also, there was a bit more offense, as AL teams scored 4.39 runs per game, compared to the 4.11 runs per game the NL side posted. Six AL teams scored 700 or more runs over the course of the season (the Toronto Blue Jays dominated that category at 891 runs, 127 more runs than the second-place New York Yankees), while only three NL teams crossed the 700 mark.

Before the season, Commissioner Manfred stated that two of his main goals in his new position were to increase offense and shorten game times, and it seems he may be able to do so by adding a designated hitter to the National League. That has been a topic of discussion among fans and analysts alike for years, and while it may not be popular (I, personally, enjoy the National League brand of baseball), it could be just what Mr. Manfred needs to kill two birds with one stone.

Next: Cueto Should Return to Form for Giants in 2016

In the end, the new rules put in place had the desired effect, lowering game times across the board. Seeing the potential increase in offense that adding a designated hitter to the National League, without an overt increase in game times, could be enough for Manfred to take a chance. He’s already made some hefty splashes in his short tenure, but that would be, by far, the biggest.