Inside Baseball’s Desperate Effort to Save Itself From Irrelevance - The Atlantic
When Manfred took over as commissioner, he made it clear that speeding up the game was a priority. He instituted a set of relatively minor adjustments that nibbled a few minutes and seconds away here and there—limitations on warm-up throws, in-game conferences, and pitching changes; eliminating the need to throw four outside pitches to complete an intentional walk. But this did not address the biggest drag on time: pitchers and batters futzing around between deliveries.
So starting this season, excessive delay would be punishable by balls and strikes, a direct performance cost that could influence the outcome of the game and the players’ statistics. After two unsuccessful pickoff throws by a pitcher, an unsuccessful third one will advance the runner a base. “One thing you learn about discipline in baseball is, uh, that money is a very weak deterrent,” Manfred told me with a resigned laugh. “The things that work affect what players really care about: Do you win or lose? Does it affect how well you do your job?”