MLB average game time drops 6 minutes

New York • The average time of a nine-inning major league game dropped for the first time since 2018, likely helped by the introduction of the PitchCom electronic device to signal pitches.

The average this season was 3 hours, 3 minutes, 44 seconds, the commissioner’s office said Monday. The figure declined from a record 3:10:07 last year and was the lowest since 3:00:44 in 2018.

MLB’s average was 2:46 in 2005 and 2:33 in 1981.

PitchCom allows catchers to input signs to a wristband device and pitchers to listen to audio tucked inside their cap. It has helped cut down the number of times pitchers stepped off the rubber to go over hand signals from catchers.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced last month that a pitch clock will be introduced in the major leagues next season, a decision made by the sport’s 11-man competition committee over the unanimous opposition of the panel’s four players.

The clock will be set at 15 seconds with no runners on base and 20 seconds with runners — up from the 14/19 tested at Triple-A this season and 14/18 at lower minor league levels.

There were 216 extra-inning games in the third season of the pandemic rule of placing a runner on second base in each extra frame, down from 233 last year and 78 during the shortened 2020 season. The longest this year was Cleveland’s 7-6, 15-inning win over Minnesota in the second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 17. That was one inning shy of the longest in the three seasons of the rule, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 16-inning win at San Diego on Aug. 25, 2021.

MLB velocity, shifts set records; average lowest since 1968

Higher velocity and increased shifts led to the major league batting average dropping to .243, its lowest since 1968.

Defensive shifts and 100 mph pitches set records this season, contributing to the worrisome offensive decline Major League Baseball is trying to address.

When the average dropped this low more than a half-century ago, MLB lowered the pitcher’s mound. Next year’s rules changes announced last month include the first restriction on shifts, a decision made over the objection of the players’ association.

“We’ve engaged in a process to develop rules that will bring back the best form of baseball,” Manfred said at the time.

The major league average was .269 in 2006 but fell to .254 in 2016 and .245 during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, then dropped by one point in each of the following years. The only seasons with lower averages than this year were the record low of .237 in 1968 along with 1967 and the deal-ball era seasons of 1884, 1888 and 1908.

Defensive shifts on balls in play totaled 66,961 this season, Sports Info Solutions said Monday, up from 59,063 last year and 2,349 in 2011. The major league-best Dodgers led this year with 2,912 shifts and NL Central champion Cleveland had the fewest at 1,600.

Batting average for left-handed hitters was .236 this year, down from .254 in 2016, when lefties were one point below the big league average.

Luis Arraez’s .316 average for Minnesota was the lowest by an American League batting champion since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski hit .301 in 1968.

MLB crowds jump from ‘21, still below pre-pandemic levels

Even with the homer heroics of sluggers like Aaron Judge and Albert Pujols, Major League Baseball wasn’t able to coax fans to ballparks at pre-pandemic levels this season, though attendance did jump substantially from the COVID-19 affected campaign in 2021.

The 30 MLB teams drew nearly 64.6 million fans for the regular season that ended Wednesday, which is up from the 45.3 million who attended games in 2021, according to baseball-reference.com. This year’s numbers are still down from the 68.5 million who attended games in 2019, which was the last season that wasn’t affected by the pandemic.

The 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers led baseball with 3.86 million fans flocking to Dodger Stadium for an average of 47,672 per contest. The Oakland Athletics — who lost 102 games, play in an aging stadium and are the constant subject of relocation rumors — finished last, drawing just 787,902 fans for an average of less than 10,000 per game.

The St. Louis Cardinals finished second, drawing 3.32 million fans. They were followed by the Yankees (3.14 million), defending World Series champion Braves (3.13 million) and Padres (2.99 million).

The Toronto Blue Jays saw the biggest jump in attendance, rising from 805,901 fans to about 2.65 million. They were followed by the Cardinals, Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers, and Mets, which all drew more than a million fans more than in 2021.

The Rangers and Reds were the only teams to draw fewer fans than in 2021.

MLB attendance had been declining slowly for years after hitting its high mark of 79.4 million in 2007. This year’s 64.6 million fans is the fewest in a non-COVID-19 season since the sport expanded to 30 teams in 1998.