On opening day, Austin Hays achieved a major league first. He had the ability to dodge the distinction.
After Orioles third baseman Ramón Urías was hit by a pitch in Baltimore’s March 30 season opener against the Boston Red Sox, Hays, due up next, gave his teammate time to collect himself. But those few extra seconds came back to bite the Orioles outfielder as he became the first hitter called for a pitch clock violation under Major League Baseball’s new timer system, beginning his at-bat with an 0-1 count.
Hays, though, could have prevented that automatic strike. Once per plate appearance, hitters can call timeout, resetting the clock to avoid the penalty or simply to afford themselves time to think through what the opposing pitcher might do next.
But Hays also didn’t want to use his timeout then and need it later.
“I think every hitter is using their timeout every single at-bat. It at least seems like it,” Hays said. “A lot of guys make physical adjustments, mental adjustments to hit with two strikes. I think that’s why most guys are saving it until that point.”
Hays’ at-bat on opening day never reached that point, as he grounded into a double play in a 1-1 count. But hitters’ timeouts are an underrated element of the sport’s new pitch clock rules, where pitchers are called for an automatic ball if the timer reaches 0 before they begin their motion and batters are given an automatic strike if they aren’t ready to hit at the 8-second mark.
The clock begins with 30 seconds for a new batter, 20 seconds with any runners on and 15 seconds with the bases empty. With a runner on, pitchers can step off twice, but they have no way to stop the timer with no one on base. Hitters have one timeout per plate appearance regardless of circumstances.
“It just allows you to gather your thoughts,” Hays said. “You’re starting to get into the at-bat, so you’re kind of getting a feel for what the pitcher and what the catcher are trying to do to you in that at-bat. Using your timeout allows you to step out, picture what’s going on in that at-bat.”
The pitch clock has had its desired effect of removing dead time from games. The Orioles’ first 17 games lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes on average, down from 3:14 in the same time frame in 2022.
Before the clock, hitters could effectively take as much time between pitches as they needed, either to go through a routine or to prepare for the upcoming pitch, with the ability to ask for time on any given pitch. But the new rules afford them only one opportunity for that, and the Orioles’ position players are learning the best ways to use it.
“There’s a lot of things that go into it,” utility player Terrin Vavra said.
There’s no clear-cut strategy for timeout usage, Vavra said, and his teammates largely agreed, with catcher Adley Rutschman saying it’s more of a “feel thing.”
“Anytime you feel like you’re getting sped up, make sure you utilize your timeout,” Rutschman said. “That’s kind of how I look at it just because everything’s going so much quicker now.”
In the first inning of the Orioles’ game Tuesday against the Washington Nationals, Mountcastle lost his helmet swinging at a 1-1 slider from Josiah Gray and used his timeout, but he said sometimes, he’ll “use it just to use it.” After all, an unused timeout won’t roll over to his next at-bat, and it’s possible that brief respite could affect the opposing pitcher’s rhythm.
Still, most Orioles said they typically use their timeout with two strikes. Hays said hitters will go into an at-bat with a plan, but after seeing a few pitches, they’ll have a better idea of how they’re being attacked. A two-strike timeout allows the batter to think through what he’s been thrown thus far and reflect on pregame scouting and video work to consider what’s most likely to come next.
“Ultimately, you want to feel the most prepared you can with two strikes at all times just because more rides on the pitch,” Vavra said. “You can’t be as conservative with it. You have to be a little more aggressive and you have to be able to protect and you have to be able to compete. You have to be able to do all those things every pitch, but with two strikes, especially, there’s a little bit more on the line.”
That’s been seen throughout the sport in recent weeks. On April 4, former Orioles star Manny Machado, now with the San Diego Padres, tried to call timeout as the clock approached 8 seconds, but plate umpire Ron Kulpa deemed Machado wasn’t quick enough and instead called him for a violation, resulting in an automatic third strike. Machado was ejected for arguing, and Chicago White Sox All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson experienced a similar situation a few days later.
At times, an outfielder might make an inning-ending catch in the gap, then lead off the next half-inning, possibly forcing him to use his timeout before seeing a pitch. Two-strike counts have presented common cause, but outfielder Anthony Santander noted that if he takes the first two pitches and they both were called strikes, he’s less likely to feel the need to call time. Some swings might cause batters to need an extra moment to recover.
“Say I swung at a crappy pitch or something,” first baseman Ryan Mountcastle said. “It’s like, ‘All right, let’s bring it back together.’”
Vavra said during the opening series in Boston, he tried to call time but didn’t receive it because the umpire didn’t hear him.
“There’s areas where it can be improved, no doubt,” Vavra said. “But I think things are trending in the right direction.”
There’s one particular improvement Santander would like to see.
“I wish we got two timeouts,” he said. “I think one for a big league hitter is not enough. We have a lot of things to think about. It’s a major league pitcher. He has six different pitches, and we’re there to compete, not to give away the at-bat, and we only have one time. It’s kind of tough, but it’s something that’s not in our hands, so we have to go out there and deal with that and make that adjustment.
“We just have to be smart about when to use it.”
