MLB Experimenting With Pushing the Mound Back and New DH Rule

Don’t look now, but Major League Baseball is trying to tinker with the game again.

According to Jayson Stark of The Athletic, the pitchers’ mound will move back 12 inches further from the plate at 61 feet, 6 inches starting this summer in the Atlantic League.

This change will occur in eight Atlantic League ballparks ranging from Kentucky to Long Island and marks the first time the mound will be anywhere other than 60 feet, 6 inches since baseball was founded back in 1893.

As Stark went on to note, this isn’t the only change that the Atlantic League is experimenting with in conjunction to Major League Baseball. Both leagues announced an additional change on Wednesday that they will test during the Atlantic League season and that is a variation to the universal DH.

The details on this other new wrinkle are that each team will start the game with a DH, but will lose their DH whenever the starting pitcher exits the game. Hence the new name of the “Double Hook.”

The Atlantic League has often been the testing grounds for MLB’s newest rules and experiments. One rule, which initially began in the Athletic League, is the three-batter minimum rule, which has become a mainstay in MLB the past two seasons.

There are also a number of other rules that were first tested in the Atlantic League that have now made their way to the minor league systems.

MLB will study the Atlantic League data once it is accessible to look closer at the impact of these new rule changes. Will the strikeout rate decrease? How will moving the mound back affect pitchers’ velocity?

Time will tell as the mound move won’t go into place until the second half of the Atlantic League season begins on Aug. 3.

And as for the Double Hook rule, this could cause managers to push their starters further in games in order to not lose a hitter in their lineup — thus re-inventing the golden age of baseball, where starters were allowed to go the distance more often than not.

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