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The 2023 MLB season has seen an addition of new rules in the hope of shortening games, increasing offense and making baseball more entertaining for fans.
One of the new rules includes the first, second and third base being expanded from 15 inches on each side to 18 inches on each side. However, the home plate will continue to remain unchanged.
While the league has listed safety as the primary reason for bigger bases, there has been some controversy surrounding the rule. The issue is that infielders are often blocking the bag with their bodies. While that play is not against the rules, defensive players have seemingly figured out a tricky way to punish aggressive base runners.
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In May, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen told The Athletic that the new rule might increase the chance of players getting injured. He said:
"It’s inevitable that someone is going to get hurt. The only thing we can do is slide cleats-first and possibly injure (the fielder) or injure both of us."
This has also led to theories of players cheating in order to win. The aggressiveness of a player defending a base and how a player responds to it has also raised controversy.
Currently, it's hard to determine whether the bigger base is naturally leading players to cheat. The rule gives some leeway to behavior that all players may not agree is fair.
Will there be robot umpires in the MLB from 2024 onwards?
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to reporters after the All-Star game earlier this month and touched upon how the league is testing and making progress with the Automated Ball-Strike System at Triple-A this year.
He said:
“I think there's some sentiment among the group that we made a lot of changes here. We ought to let the dust settle, and there are clearly unresolved operational issues with respect to ABS. Despite all the testing, we still have some things that are unresolved."
As the league still needs to rectify some issues around using robot umpires in the MLB, the new-age technology won't be available in 2024. However, in order to reduce human error, there is a possibility that we may soon have robot umpires in the Majors.
