Major League Baseball made a good deal of rule changes between the 2022 and 2023 season, and it led to a surge in stolen bases on Opening Day on Thursday.
Stolen base attempts per game more than doubled from last year's Opening Day, indicating that the efforts to increase the running game in MLB may be working. Runners were 21 for 23 on steal attempts on Thursday, compared to five of nine in seven games on the first day of 2022's season, per Jay Cohen of Associated Press.
“There were 21 stolen bases on Thursday, the most on an Opening Day since 1907,” wrote ESPN's Jesse Rogers. “Success rate was 91.3% (21 for 23).”
Last season's success rate was 75 percent on Opening Day, and there was only one day all of last season when the league had 20-plus steals with a success rate better than 90 percent, per Cohen. That was when runners were 22 of 24 on July 26, 2022.
The Baltimore Orioles stole the most bases, swiping five bags during a 10-9 win over the Boston Red Sox, headlined by two stolen bases for speedster Cedric Mullins.
“Those baserunning exploits come after MLB limited pitchers to two pickoff attempts per batter — a third attempt must result in an out, otherwise pitchers are charged a balk. The bases were also made bigger, shrinking the distance between bags by 4 1/2 feet,” wrote Cohen.
MLB is clearly trying to make the game faster and encourage more attempts at stolen bases, which is exactly what was seen in Day 1 of the season.
It'll be intriguing to see if this pace keeps up after an incredible 21 stolen bases on Thursday, the most in 116 years.
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