How the New Baseball Rules will Impact the 2023 New York Yankees

 Spring Training has officially begun. Sure, games are being ended on bases-loaded strike violations, games are starting with 1-1 counts, and the pitch clock isn’t always being reset—BUT WE HAVE BASEBALL…

Or something that looks like baseball that a small majority doesn’t want to accept.

A ticking grandfather clock is always beating now like a metronome that is just a little too loud and a half second off tune.

The reason for the time bomb-esc feeling is due to the new rules that Major League Baseball is implementing for the 2023 season and beyond. The pitch clock has been the hot topic from the first weekend of Spring Games, but the rule that will continue to make people unhappy about the new rules has nothing to do with time. By the middle of May every baseball fan young and old will be familiar with the phrase “disengagements.” What was once a term only used in Las Vegas will be trending on baseball Twitter and the main word used in an angry call to your favorite sports radio show. What the rule is talking about is the number of times a pitcher can step off the rubber for any reason at all. If Clayton Kershaw wants to collect his thoughts after a close pitch that he wanted as a strike that was called a ball and steps off, that’s one disengagement. If the San Andres Fault rumbles and records a 1.5 on the Richter scale and Kershaw slips off the mound that would be a second disengagement. If Kershaw than decides two pitches later that he wants to throw over to first base, he must pick off the runner at first or it’s a balk and the runner will get awarded second base. Fair or not, that's the rule. However, if there is a pass ball or a stolen base after the fault line moves the disengagement counter resets.

Got it? Good, great, grand, WONDERFUL!

My reasoning for bringing up these rule changes that will melt your brain like the Arc of the Covenant is because undoubtably it will affect your favorite team positively and negatively for about the first two and half months of the 2023 regular season. So, let’s take a deep dive as to how the new rule changes will affect the 2023 New York Yankees.

Pitch Clock Timing:

Here is a list of the pitchers on the Yankees Active Roster from fastest to the plate to the slowest who qualified and was tracked last season by Baseball Savant:

Just a friendly reminder the new rule changes declare that with the bases empty you must begin your delivery 15 seconds after a pitch is delivered—while with runners on every 20 seconds.

1. Nestor Cortes: 15 seconds with bases empty | 21.7 seconds with a runner(s) on.

2. Domingo German: 16 seconds with bases empty | 24.5 seconds with a runner(s) on.

3. Luis Severino: 16.3 seconds with bases empty | 22.0 seconds with a runner(s) on.

4. Wandy Peralta: 16.7 seconds with bases empty | 21.5 seconds with a runner(s) on.

5. Clarke Smidt: 17.3 seconds with bases empty | 24.3 seconds with a runner(s) on.

6. Gerrit Cole: 17.6 seconds with bases empty | 23.3 seconds with a runner(s) on.

7. Albert Abreu: 18.4 seconds with bases empty | 24 seconds with a runner(s) on.

8. Lou Trivino: 18.9 seconds with bases empty | 23.2 seconds with a runner(s) on.

9. Carlos Rodon (recorded with Giants): 19.1 seconds with bases empty | 23.1 seconds with a runner(s) on.

10.  Frankie Montas: 19.1 seconds with bases empty | 28.5 seconds with a runner(s) on.

11.  Ron Marinaccio: 19.6 seconds with bases empty | 24.5 seconds with a runner(s) on.

12.  Scott Effross: 21 seconds with bases empty | 26.9 seconds with a runner(s) on.

13.  Tommy Kahnle (recorded with Dodgers): 21.3 seconds with bases empty | 26.3 seconds with a runner(s) on.

14.  Greg Weissert: 21.2 seconds with bases empty | 24 seconds with a runner(s) on.

15.  Michael King: 21. 5 seconds with bases empty | 25.7 seconds with a runner(s) on.

16.  Clay Holmes: 21.8 seconds with bases empty | 25.2 seconds with a runner(s) on.

17.  Jonathan Loaisiga: 25.8 seconds with bases empty | 26.4 seconds with a runner(s) on.

Some names not on the list but who are on the 40-Man roster and might find themselves helping the Yankees record outs this season but don’t have any data on Baseball Savant: Jhony Brito, Jimmy Cordero, Deivi Garcia (remember him), Luis Gil (remember him), Yoendrys Gomez, Matt Krook, and Randy Vasquez.

SO, every pitcher on roster will need to quicken up in some shape and form so the team in the other dugout doesn’t just walk around the bases like a Bugs Bunny Cartoon. The biggest concern with quacking players' deliveries is how will the velocity be affected and what will that mean if you miss your spot? Well, the Yankees won Major League Baseball’s team platinum glove, so for a team with stellar defense, maybe not that much, as long as the missed location isn’t over the heart of the plate and the ball ends up in the seats.

On the other hand, with walking in mind, let’s look at the everyday players foot speed. Because the bases are now three inches bigger. No longer are the days of backyard wiffleball games using pizza boxes, those backyard games have now made their way to the big leagues. In a game of inches, the faster players will now have a few more infield singles and a handful more stolen bases, which is good for the game, but it opens even more opportunity for smart base runners. For those unaware the average foot speed in Major League Baseball for the 2022 season was 27 feet per second. Here’s how the Bronx Bombers matchup against the league average according to Baseball Savant:

1. Harrison Bader: 29.1 feet per second

2. Oswald Peraza: 28.9 feet per second

3. Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 28.4 feet per second

4. Estevan Florial: 27.9 feet per second

5. Aaron Hicks: 27.9 feet per second

6. Oswaldo Cabrera: 27.5 feet per second

7. Aaron Judge: 27.3 feet per second

8. Gleyber Torres: 26.9 feet per second

9. DJ LeMahieu: 26.4 feet per second

10.   Kyle Higashioka: 25.9 feet per second

11.  Josh Donaldson: 25.7 feet per second

12.  Anthony Rizzo: 25.5 feet per second

13.  Jose Trevino: 25 feet per second

14.  Giancarlo Stanton: 24.5 feet per second

There are nine players on the mind of Yankee fans that will impact games on a nightly basis. Seven of them are the first seven on the list above based on their speed because it has impacted games before. The 8th is the 8th man on the list, Gleyber Torres, but for a different reason. If you watched a majority of Yankee games last year, what you noticed is that Torres was figuring out how to be a better baserunner in front of our eyes. He did have some mind-numbing mistakes because of a missed sign or over aggressiveness, but the 26-year-old second baseman was putting himself in the right place and pushing the envelope just enough more often than not last season. With a spring that brings bigger bases, limited attempts at pickoffs, and players reverting to the high school way of covering bases on steal attempts (not to mention adjusting timing to an incoming runner due to those bigger basses) Torres could be the most impactful player on the base paths for the Bronx Bombers. The 9th and final Yankee to keep an eye on when he’s on base is Anthony Rizzo. The Yankee first baseman is “sneaky fast.” His 6’3” 240lb frame lumbering toward you is quicker than you imagine.

There will undoubtedly come a time when something happens that was unthinkable with these rules because a billion outcomes can happen in any given baseball game. There will be complaints until “fans” are red in the face, until it’s a Thursday in June and they’re in bed at 9:30 after watching a full game. There will be some basketball games that will be in the middle of the 3rd quarter when the handshake line breaks out. Action will break out and the true athleticism of the game will make you forget that there’s a clock counting down every 15-20 seconds.

Baseball has been waiting, literally, for too long to make the game modern. The new rule changes are not made for the 55-year-old father watching only his favorite team every night. It was made for the 7-year-old to sit down with his 55-year-old father and talk and watch the beautiful game.

The adjustment period will be odd but there will come a time when the new rules will feel normal and everyone will sit back and express “why didn’t we do this sooner!”