Major League Baseball had the best laboratory to test potential new rules: the minor leagues. And the league used the minors to do just that the past few seasons.
MLB officials could take a pitch clock or larger bases or elimination of extreme shifts out for a test drive not only with high-level competition, but also with the best of the players and umpires gaining experience under those edicts to carry with them to the majors if the rules changed there (as they did for this season).
Quirks could be worked out. Rough edges refined. Anecdotal information gathered. It all has helped a transition that — to date — is meeting with near universal approval, especially for playing games quicker with less dead time.
But nothing comes without unintended consequences. In part, not everything in the minors could mimic the majors, especially when it comes to pitchers.
Notably the pitchers are younger by a large degree in the minors. They are not asked to carry as great a workload, either in games or over the season. The crowds are not as big. The media contingents that cover them are not as large or as intense. And the priority is development, not winning.
This has stood out early if you are watching the Mets, possessors of the oldest pitching staff in the majors (average age 32.2), and their few early season tussles with the pitch clock. Max Scherzer, mad scientist and ace, has been trying to figure out whether to go quick or slow and when, and he has yet to find peace two starts into his season. Carlos Carrasco not only had two violations for taking too long to deliver a pitch, but also his velocity dipped significantly during his start.
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One expected consequence of the pitch clock was that by having to be in a delivery within 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 seconds with runners on, pitchers would have to be in better cardiovascular shape to throw with less rest in between. But the Mets theorize that the 36-year-old Carrasco lost velocity not because of the short recovery time between pitches, but rather due to a shorter time between innings: notably that Carrasco had a long inning on the mound, then a shorter rest than in the past due to how quickly 1-2-3 innings now go, followed by another long pitching inning.
“In the past when a pitcher had a taxing inning, we could stall on offense,” one top NL executive said. “I would think this will take its toll on pitcher endurance.”
But is that just in games? Or the season? Again, starters, in particular, are asked to work longer than in the minors, and to throw more innings. The better prospects in the minors, in particular, are going to be limited in their pitch counts and innings.
That led another NL executive to wonder: “What is the pitching going to look like in July and August? How many pitchers are we going to need [over the season]?”
During the past two seasons MLB already set records for pitchers used — 909 in 2021 and 871 last year (that includes position players deployed to pitch). This year, there already were 403 pitchers used entering the weekend — 10 more than were used by all 26 teams in 1984.
“As much as we prepared in spring training, there is nothing like when you turn the lights on [to an MLB season] and there’s 50,000 people in the stands and the adrenaline is for real and you reach for that extra gear,” Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner said. “I think we are still learning. As much as the minors leagues showed us, that is only to a point. There is going to be an adjustment period, and I think we will adjust. But I do think we are trying to figure out what are the best practices.”
MLB also has asked for patience. League officials understood that younger pitchers who worked under many of these rules in the minors would be better situated early, but that the best players in the world would adapt with time. But the flip side is that veterans have become veterans by developing habits and rhythms that are not quite as entrenched with minor leaguers. As Hefner said, “Some guys have been doing it for 15 years a particular way.”
Hefner has more of these types than anyone. Carrasco, Scherzer, David Robertson, Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino, Tommy Hunter and, coming soon, Justin Verlander are all 35 or older. Jose Quintana, who may return around midseason, is 34. That group had appeared in 3,486 major league games, made 1,513 starts and thrown 11,436 innings before this year without the new rules.
Hefner wondered if the way to adapt might include starting every fourth day, but throwing less, or being part of a six-man rotation to create more rest, or doing nothing at all.
“We want to win ballgames,” Hefner said. “We want to put our players in the best position to be successful, and whatever that looks like, we will do. So we are just thinking about every option possible that might be a solution to this — and maybe doing nothing because we will adapt in a few weeks and this will feel normal again.
“There is going to be a balance of the 1,000-foot view and the 30,000-foot view — the micro and the macro. You talk about what’s going on if you need to make changes while you keep a long view of your whole season and what your goals are.”
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