Pace of play

[2] The amount of time a pitcher takes between pitches directly affects pace of play, and varies widely.

In the 2022 MLB season, the last season before the league implemented a pitch clock, the slowest working pitcher was Giovanny Gallegos of the St. Louis Cardinals, who averaged 25.8 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, while the quickest working pitcher was Wade Miley of the Chicago Cubs, who averaged 11.4 seconds.

[8] Towards the end of the 2014 season, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig announced the formation of a committee to examine the issue.

John Schuerholz chaired the committee, which also included Sandy Alderson, Tony Clark, Rob Manfred, Joe Torre, and Tom Werner.

[11][12] Prior to the 2017 MLB season, the rules were amended to allow a manager to order an automatic intentional walk.

[15] Before the 2018 season, MiLB took major actions, including adding pitch clocks at all levels, beginning each extra inning with a runner on second base, and restricting the number of mound visits for full-season Class A through Triple-A teams.

[18] As an experimental step to accelerate pace of play, MLB implemented 20-second pitch clocks during spring training games in 2019.

[19] After a successful trial in Low-A West in 2021, MLB allowed teams to use PitchCom, a wireless communications system, to request pitches starting in the 2022 season.

Player representatives to the competition committee, the body responsible for the rule changes, voted against implementing the pitch clock and infield positioning restrictions.