What’s the worst that can happen under MLB’s new rules? Look to Triple-A

We’ve had a few days to absorb the version of Major League Baseball that will be played in 2023, and one thing is clear: some batters and pitchers are no more accustomed to the sight of a clock counting down the seconds than viewers sitting at home watching on their televisions.

To some, the clock is an affront to tradition. To others, it’s an unobtrusive necessity. To many spring training participants – particularly the men who keep their feet in the batter’s box and deliver every pitch quickly – it’s actually been more than a few days since the new rules went into effect.

For them, there’s no need to speculate about the worst thing that can happen in a baseball world governed by the new rules: the omnipresent timer, limits on stepping off the mound, limited shifting and bigger bases. All of the “new” rules have been tested in the minor leagues already. Some of the worst, weirdest and wildest consequences of these rules have already been realized in Triple-A games.

Like on May 13 of last year. The Oklahoma City Dodgers were playing the Round Rock Express. Oklahoma City loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning of a 5-5 game. Jesus Tinoco, pitching for Round Rock, disengaged with the rubber three times during one plate appearance – a balk – and Drew Avans trotted home from third base with the go-ahead run. That made the difference in a 6-5 Dodger win.

Or on April 21, in a game between the St. Paul Saints and Toledo Mud Hens. Saints pitcher Devin Smeltzer got not one, but two strike-three calls without delivering a pitch: one to the first batter in the bottom of the first, Zack Short, and another to the leadoff batter in the second, Daz Cameron.

Short and Cameron weren’t the only players working slowly relative to the pitch timer, but as Saints play-by-play man Sean Aronson explains, they were the only ones penalized.

“The next day I went and talked to Smeltzer and he said he felt bad for the hitters,” Aronson said via email, “because in both scenarios he didn’t even have the pitch he was going to throw. While he was on the mound staring into the catcher, he hadn’t been given the sign for the pitch.”

Maybe the best anecdote comes from an April 28 game in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between the Albuquerque Isotopes and Sacramento River Cats. Todd Helton was enjoying his first series in Albuquerque as a special assistant for the parent club, the Colorado Rockies. In only his third game in the Isotopes’ dugout, Helton was ejected.

I’ll let Isotopes play-by-play man Josh Suchon take it from here:

“A player struck out to end an inning because he was outside the box,” Suchon recalled via email. “Helton didn’t know the rule, started yelling at the umpire and got ejected. Our manager, Warren Schaeffer, went out to talk with the umpire and asked him, ‘do you know who you just ejected?’ The umpire didn’t know and Schaeffer doubled over in laughter.”

Often, even the awkward moments pass without fanfare. The El Paso Chihuahuas were playing in Sacramento last June during Robinson Canó’s brief comeback attempt with the parent San Diego Padres. Canó, aloof of the pitch-timer rules, was not alert to the pitcher with eight seconds on the clock and was rung up for strike three.

“Canó calmly asked the umpire about it and then walked to the dugout,” Chihuahuas play-by-play broadcaster Tim Hagerty recalled via email.

Sometimes, the fanfare is great. Aronson recalled one game in which Saints hitter Curtis Terry was rung up on a strike-three call because he wasn’t in the batter’s box at seven seconds, per the rules at the time. Terry picked the bat up over his head the long way, slammed it to the ground at a 45-degree angle, and was ejected.

Eddy Alvarez might have the best ejection story. The veteran utility player was leading off a game for Oklahoma City in Sacramento last year when he took umbrage with a called strike. Oklahoma City play-by-play broadcaster Alex Freedman has the details:

“Alvarez did not request his one timeout, so while he was still talking with the umpire he was not attentive to the pitcher by the time there were eight seconds left on the clock,” Freedman recalled. “Automatic strike three and he’s out. Alvarez protests and is ejected. The clubhouses in that ballpark are not connected to the dugouts and past center field. Thus, if a player or coach is ejected, he has to walk across the entire field before play can resume. Let’s just say there’s no clock for leaving the field, so Eddy took his sweet time much to the delight/chagrin of those in attendance.”

Traditionalists will hold up these examples – if and when they occur in a major-league game – as a distortion of “real baseball.” But they are the exceptions to the rule.

Alex Cohen, the Iowa Cubs’ broadcaster, had nothing for me.

“No automatic strike three. No automatic ball four. Nothing to end or decide games,” Cohen wrote. “It was all pretty normal – which I think will be the overall message with these rules. It’s going to feel normal.”

Rochester Red Wings broadcaster Josh Whetzel recalled a 2-to-3 week “feeling out period” early in the season, then no issues apart from an occasionally aggressive pitch-timer operator.

“Last year, a lot of umpires would gently suggest to clock operators to wait maybe a beat to start the clock,” Whetzel said. “I don’t know that they will be able to get away with that in the big leagues with way more eyeballs on it.”

Baseball fans love to complain about changes, especially when so many are introduced at once. But what seems like an improbable outcome today might just become the new normal tomorrow: the rules of the game will be nothing more than the rules.