Gleyber Torres leads the majors in steals. I didn’t ever expect to write that sentence. Torres is just an average major league runner, clocking in right around 27 ft/s for his entire career.
Anthony Volpe has 3 steals, and he’s only a little bit faster. We all know that he stole 50 bases in the minors last season. Watch him do his thing, not even drawing. a throw in two of his first three stolen bases:
As a club, the Yankees are top-5 in the major in stolen bases this season, but I don’t think anyone would describe them as a fast club. Their fast guys—Volpe, Hicks, Kiner-Falefa—aren’t burners. The Yankees haven’t had any real speedsters on their team since Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury were in their prime. Yet, they seem to have come into the 2023 season with a plan to take advantage of the new rules.
A lot of credit has to go to Matt Talarico, the Yankees’ Director of Speed. Talarico has been working over the past few years across minor league teams to help Yankee prospects perform better on the bases. His work paid off: Volpe stole 50 (in 132 games), Dominguez 37 (in 120 games), Peraza 33 (in 99 (!) games) and even Elijah Dunham, who is not known for his speed, stole 37 (in 110 games). In fact, nearly every Yankee prospect of note stole more than 10 bases in 2022.
Under the new pitcher disengagement rules, anyone can steal a base. Runners can bait throws over. After they bait throws over, they can take bigger leads. On Baseball Savant’s Ballpark Dimensions Podcast, we learned that early in the 2023 season, a player’s average lead increases by about a foot and a half after the second throw over. That’s a lot! It’s about the equivalent of a player adding 0.5 ft/second to their Spring Training, before factoring in getting a better jump on a pitcher.
A player like Gleyber Torres can have as much of an advantage over the catcher as a much faster traditional base stealer, if they can take advantage of the rules. A slightly faster player, like Anthony Volpe, can steal basically at will. A truly fast player who exploits the new rules might be able to put up truly legendary stolen base numbers. I’m watching you, Trea Turner.
Overall, I think the new pitch clock rules are a resounding success. Games are moving quicker. They are filled with action. I’m going to my first game of the season this weekend in Milwaukee, and I expect it to be a lot of fun. I had a bad time at games last year. Every game I went to was a slow moving Three True Outcomes slog. While baseball hasn’t fixed all of its problems, I’ll have a laser eye on every runner at second now. I’ll watch a game move thanks to the pitch clock. Maybe I’ll see some great infield defense that I wouldn’t otherwise. Nice job, Theo.