Tony Clark: MLBPA Voiced Concerns with MLB's Pitch Clock Rule Change for 2024 Season

Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark said Saturday that MLB enacted changes to the pitch clock for the 2024 season despite players having some trepidation about the proposed alterations.

Speaking the decision to cut the pitch clock from 20 seconds to 18 seconds when players are on base, Clark told the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com) the following: "That's a conversation that should have warranted a much longer dialogue than what we had. We voiced those concerns, players voiced those concerns, and yet, the push through of the change to the pitch clock still happened."

Pitch clocks were added last season, and after the success MLB enjoyed in terms of cutting down the average length of games, the league decided to push the envelope even further in 2024.

Per the AP, the average game time last season was two hours and 40 minutes, which was down 24 minutes from the 2022 season and was MLB's quickest average game time since the 1984 campaign.

Given how significant of a change players had to adapt to last season, Clark expressed his belief that shaving more time off the pitch clock so soon is not beneficial to the players:

"We just had the biggest adjustment this league has ever seen in regards to length of game and how the game was affected by including a clock. Rather than give us another year to adjust and adapt to it, why are we adjusting again, and what are the ramifications going to be?"

Clark also discussed his concern over shortening the time between pitches even more as it relates to potential injuries, saying: "When fatigue happens, you're more susceptible to injury. We're seeing a lot of injuries, and we're seeing them in a way that simply can't remove the question of whether or not shortening recovery time is in anyone's best interest."

According to Matt Snyder of CBS Sports, Clark also took issue with the changes when they were first announced back in December.

Clark noted at the time that the players who were members of the competition committee voted against the tweaks, but since there are only four players on the 11-person committee, they did not hold the majority.

Other rule changes for the 2024 season include widening the running lane between home plate and first base, reducing mound visits in a game from five to four and a rule that requires any pitcher who warms up on the mound before an inning to face at least one hitter.