As Major League Baseball contemplates additional rule changes, one idea that has been discussed is a minimum innings requirement for starting pitchers.
Starters averaged just over five innings per game during the 2024 season, a number that has steadily decreased in the last decade.
The thought process behind a minimum innings requirement for starting pitchers is to restore the prestige that was once associated with the role.
While a minimum innings requirement would be difficult to enforce, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wants to incentive teams for starting pitchers going deeper into starts, via Questions for Cancer Research:
“Look, the marketing of a game, just think about a broadcast. The face you see the most in a broadcast is the starting pitcher, and the matchups of great starting pitchers historically have been important in terms of the marketing of the game and I do think we need to get back to that.
“To me, this needs to be addressed in a more subtle way, I think maybe through rules surrounding transactions; that is, how often pitchers come on and off the roster. One of the things that happens today, guy pitches three days in a row, he gets outrighted, they bring somebody else in to give him some rest, as opposed to him staying on the roster the whole time.
“I think we need to create incentives through things like roster rules, transaction rules for clubs to develop pitchers who go deeper in the game. I don’t think it can be prescriptive, you have to go six innings. I think it has to be a series of rules that create an incentive for clubs to develop pitchers of a certain type.”
As Manfred noted, baseball has shifted away from the days of starting pitchers routinely logging at least six innings in favor of teams opting to go to their bullpen much earlier.
Manfred recently admitted that a minimum innings requirement isn’t feasible, but a system where teams are rewarded for starting pitchers going deeper into starts could potentially work.
As part of the 2022-2026 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), MLB now rewards teams for promoting top prospects at the start of a season and going on to win a major award such as Rookie of the Year or MVP.
A similar method could be used for starting pitchers who average a certain amount of innings or pitches per game. However, any potential incentives would almost certainly have to be worked into the next CBA.
MLB study ties pitcher injuries to velocity & spin rate
Another reason why MLB was open to a minimum innings requirement for starting pitchers is because it would theoretically place a greater emphasis on endurance over max velocity.
A recent MLB study showed that higher velocity and max effort have a direct correlation to the increase in arm injuries for pitchers.
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