Four under-the-radar effects of MLB’s new rules, including fewer and more-efficient pickoffs

Thursday marks six weeks since Opening Day and this has been a transformative season for Major League Baseball. The league implemented several new rules designed to make more stuff happen on the field, basically. More aggressive baserunning, more batted balls landing for hits, more defenders showcasing their athleticism, and all of that happening at a quicker pace.

To date, all the rule changes are working as intended, and the game itself feels refreshed. It had become a real slog at times the last few years. Here are some quick numbers on the new rules:

• The average time of a nine-inning game is down from 3:03 last year to 2:36 this year, and the average time between pitches within an at-bat is down from 23.1 seconds last year to 18.4 seconds this year. That’s 4.7 fewer seconds per pitch.
• MLB is on pace for 4,360 stolen-base attempts and 3,427 successful stolen bases this season. That would be the most steal attempts since 2011 (4,539) and the most successful steals since 1987 (3,589).
• The league batting average on balls in play is .297, the highest since 2019 (.298), and teams are averaging 4.58 runs per game, the highest in a 162-game season since 2019 (4.83).

Baseball now features more hits, more stolen bases, and more offense in general than the last several years, and MLB has packed it all into games that take on average 26 fewer minutes to play than last year. There’s more stuff happening and it’s taking less time to happen. Games are more action-packed. That was the goal with these new rules.

What about some under-the-radar changes or unintended consequences of the new rules? Those exist too. Here are four a bit more subtle changes to the game thanks to the new rules.

1. Fewer pickoff attempts, but more pickoffs

It was no secret there would be fewer pickoff attempts this year — pitchers are limited to two disengagements (step offs, pickoff throws, etc.) per plate appearance now — and I underestimated how much I would enjoy this as a spectator. I don’t miss endless pickoff attempts even a tiny little bit. I know the limit on disengagements makes it harder for pitchers to hold runners, but who cares? Holding runners is boring.

Here are some numbers on pickoff attempts and successful pickoffs, ignoring the bizarre 60-game pandemic season in 2020: