The Los Angeles Dodgers topped the major leagues with 26 pitch clock violations this season, while the Tampa Bay Rays’ Shane Baz led pitchers and the Athletics’ Lawrence Butler was first among batters as the overall big league total dropped substantially once again.
Los Angeles committed one more violation than the New York Mets, according to Major League Baseball’s figures. The Colorado Rockies had 23, and the Houston Astros, the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Nationals had 22 each.
The Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals tied for the fewest infractions with three apiece.
There were 465 violations in the third year of the pitch clock, down from 602 last year and 1,048 in 2023. Pitchers committed 369 violations, along with 91 by batters and five by catchers.
Baz was followed by Enyel De Los Santos, Camilo Doval, Jose Fermin, Kodai Senga, Framber Valdez and Will Warren with five each.
Chris Bassitt, Sean Burke, Jose A. Ferrer, Tyler Glasnow, Yoendrys Gomez, Sonny Gray, Eric Lauer and Carlos Vargas had four apiece.
Among batters, Warming Bernabel, Yandy Diaz, Nick Gonzales, Jung Hoo Lee, Yoan Moncada, J.T, Realmuto, Javier Sanoja, Carlos Santana, Dominic Smith and Ramon Urias had two each.
There were 35 pitcher disengagement violations, a decrease of one, and five batter timeout violations, the same as in 2024.
There was just one defensive shift violation, a drop from two last year and 26 when rule started in 2023 that required two infielders to be on the infield dirt on each side of second base.
This year’s violation occurred Sept. 18 when the Seattle Mariners played at Kansas City. Mariners manager Dan Wilson asked for a video review that determined Royals second baseman Michael Massey hadn’t been fully on the infield dirt when Dominic Canzone grounded out in the eighth inning.
Canzone was awarded first on the violation and J.P. Crawford followed with a two-out RBI double in Seattle’s 2-0 win.
MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18 ahead of the 2024 season while keeping it at 15 seconds without runners on base.
MLB’s average time of a nine-inning game fell from 3 hours, 4 minutes in 2022 to 2:40 the following year when the clock was instituted and decreased to 2:36 in 2024, its lowest since 1984’s 2:35. It rose to 2:38 this year.