Jesse Rogers at ESPN:

The use of a pitch clock shaved 26 minutes off spring training games this spring compared to last year as Major League Baseball is set to use it for the first time in the regular season beginning Thursday.

Games lasted 2:35 this spring compared to 3:01 in 2022 as pitchers were given 15 seconds between pitches to throw the ball when the bases were unoccupied and 20 seconds when runners were on base.

MLB regular-season games averaged 3:03 last season.

So 2:37 would be the average game length for the 2023 regular season if we subtract those 26 minutes from last year’s average. That’s more than reasonable.

I know a lot of traditionalists hate the pitch clock because “there’s nothing wrong with the game,” but MLB didn’t change this with you in mind. They changed it with casuals in mind. They know you’re still going to watch the game regardless of whether it’s 2:37, 3:37, or 4:37, but the uncaptured part of the sporting fan demographic will not. MLB wanted to address pace-of-play issues in the game, so this is the result.

My thing with the pitch clock, and pace of play, and game length, and all of that interconnected stuff, is that it’s less about how long the guys are out there and more about how frequently the ball is in play. It’s about putting more balls in the field, and having more in-game action, and if you cut down on the amount of time that guys are grabbing their crotch or stepping out of the box, or throwing to first, or spitting sunflower seeds, then a larger portion of the game time is going to be spent pitching, swinging, fielding, running, sliding, and all of that. It’s more about maximizing the meaningful moments and having them occupy a larger percentage of the time pie.

Honestly, we’ll probably forget about the pitch clock by the summer. I truly believe that. It’s gonna be like the lowering of the helmet in the NFL a few years ago. Everybody threw a fit over that, refs were over-flagging it, and it was a universally-hated rule. Then everyone got settled, we got used to it, and no one ever talks about it anymore.

That’s probably what will happen here. Every time something new is added to the game, it sticks out like a sore thumb, the umps/refs don’t have a firm grasp of it yet, and the players are still getting used to it. I predict that this time next week, we’ll reach the apex of anti-pitch clock stories in the media, then it’ll slowly taper off as we reach that point where we’re 25-30 games into the season. It’ll become second nature and while people will still probably have a specific like/dislike opinion about it, it’s not going to be the foremost baseball controversy.