Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to end the controversial tactic used by Venezuelan José Caballero to take advantage of the shot clock. During the match between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees, the infielder was penalized for violating the stopwatch, marking a change in the interpretation of the rule.
Caballero had found a loophole in the rules by waiting until the clock showed exactly eight seconds to look up at the pitcher, an action he had repeated for much of the season without punishment.
However, that strategy came to an end after the officiating team received direct instructions from MLB to begin strictly enforcing the rule.
The head of the referee group, Adrian Johnson, explained that the decision was not the initiative of the officials on the field.
“He’s been warned all season and we were told not to caution him. We were told to sanction him… it’s an infraction,” Johnson said after the game.
With this measure, Major League Baseball seeks to eliminate any gap in the application of the shot clock, a rule implemented to speed up the pace of games and avoid unnecessary delays between each pitch.
Caballero’s sanction sets a precedent for the rest of the players, since the commissioner’s office made it clear that, from now on, compliance with the clock will be supervised more rigorously.
