MLB's pitch clock is doing a lot more good than harm

A little more than a week into the Pitch Clock Era, baseball somehow has survived being played on a timer. In fact, by most accounts, the sport has never been better.

More action delivered at a faster pace. It’s precisely what commissioner Rob Manfred had in mind in his repeated attempts during the past decade to implement a pitch clock. And frankly, the adjustment process to what was feared to be a radical concept hasn’t been that disruptive at all.

Quite the contrary. Not only have the games sped along at a clip we haven’t seen since 1984, but baseball hasn’t collapsed into some kind of Orwellian dystopia.

Have there been glitches along the way? Sure. That was to be expected. But for the most part, these new rules haven’t resulted in the chaos that opponents of the changes predicted.

The benefits are significant.

Through Thursday, the average time for a nine-inning game clocked in at 2:37, a decrease of 32 minutes from a year ago over the same period (3:09). Also, offense is up across the board, with the overall batting average of .248 a noticeable jump from last year’s .234 through the first eight days (98 games) of the season. The same goes for runs, which at 9.1 per game is up from 8.5. Stolen bases have climbed to 1.3 from 0.8 a year ago.

That doesn’t mean this first week-plus was a completely smooth ride. On Wednesday, Gerrit Cole committed his first violation with the final non-pitch of an otherwise stellar performance in the Yankees’ 4-2 victory over the Phillies. As Cole and catcher Jose Trevino cycled through their PitchComs to agree on a selection, the 15-second clock slipped away from them, and the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos got the ultimate full-count free pass without having to decipher something from Cole’s nasty repertoire.

“Just have to be prepared and kind of be ready for anything,” Trevino said afterward. “The pitch clock is what it is. We got to get used to it. It’s here.”

Castellanos came around to score against reliever Jonathan Loaisiga — Cole’s only run allowed in two starts this season — but it didn’t factor much in the outcome. And as enraged as Cole was at the time, he didn’t come out blasting the new rule or calling on the commissioner to add more seconds to the clock, as some have done.

“Rhythm and tempo, it’s been a non-factor,” Cole said. “I prepared for it. But my pace historically has been within the ramifications of it.”

That’s not the case with everyone. The Mets’ Carlos Carrasco was called for a pair of clock violations Monday, including one before throwing his first pitch. Carrasco later blamed his fatigue on less time to rest between pitches, and his velocity was down as well.

The Mets committed four violations during Monday’s 10-0 loss to the Brewers, an especially rough game when you consider all of MLB was tagged with 83 in the first 97 games.

“Everybody is going through some adjustment period,” manager Buck Showalter said. “It’s umpires, it’s clock operators, it’s us, it’s other teams we’re playing. You better figure it out, because it’s not going away.”

But some already have advocated for more seconds to be put on the clock, and Max Scherzer even lobbied toward the end of spring training for the umpires to have the jurisdiction to shut off the clock if they believed the game was operating at a sufficient pace.

“You look at this and still see some potential holes,” Scherzer said. “There’s ticky-tack things that you can do to be able to get an advantage to your way. Seeing all this, I just wish MLB would give the umpires the ability to turn the clock off as long as the hitters are playing at speed and we’re all playing at pace.”

Scherzer is correct in one aspect. MLB’s goal is not to punish players or have games decided by pitch-clock penalties. It’s to create a quicker, more entertaining pace.

But here’s the problem. Every other method short of a timer failed miserably because hitters and pitchers just ignored the toothless consequences. A few years back, players used to get warnings and/or fines from the commissioner’s office for dragging the game down to a slog, but they ultimately laughed them off.

It’s not a joking matter anymore. A number of players already have been called out by an automatic strike three — including Mark Canha on Monday — and those are moments best experienced only once.

In Canha’s case, he said he glanced up at the scoreboard for a pitch velocity, something he routinely does, was thrown off when it didn’t appear and lost track of time. Hitters have to be ready in the box, looking at the pitcher, with eight seconds remaining on the timer.

Scherzer’s suggestion would not work for one obvious reason (as much as he seems to enjoy this debate). Once the umpire turns off the clock, players would go right back to their old habits — at least the more veteran types, consciously or not — and then it would become a problem again.

The same holds true for adding a few more seconds to the clock. What’s the point of now giving back all the time the new rules just saved?

It’s a very slippery slope. Remember how the extra-innings rule of starting with a runner on second base was supposed to be the most heinous crime in the history of mankind? It figured to be temporary as part of the COVID-19 provisions for re-starting the sport during the pandemic. But once everyone realized the benefits — more action, quicker resolutions, less wear and tear over a long season — it only made sense to make the change permanent.

There was an outcry to wait until the 11th or 12th inning to introduce the automatic (some say ghost) runner in an effort to preserve so-called “real” baseball. But again, that’s missing the point. The intention is to get a speedier resolution, so why would you then add measures to counteract that goal?

That’s what MLB is dealing with now. The pitch clock already has ripped off the Band-Aid. Everyone has been working under these conditions for six-plus weeks of spring training and another week of the regular season. The initial outrage has cooled and the results, in a word, have been remarkable. There’s no reason for backsliding when it comes to the pitch clock or its accompanying rules, especially now that we know this was all long overdue.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.