User:Spesh531/sandbox/2024 Major League Baseball season

The 2024 Major League Baseball season (MLB) is an ongoing professional baseball season in the United States and Canada. The season began on March 20–21 with a two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres held in Seoul, South Korea, before the regular season proper runs from March 28 to September 29. The 94th All-Star Game is planned for July 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The postseason is then scheduled to begin on October 1 with a potential World Series Game 7 set for November 2. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions are the Texas Rangers from the 2023 season. During the offseason, the Oakland Athletics were approved by MLB owners to relocate to Las Vegas in 2028. It will also be the team's final season in Oakland as they will leave the Oakland Coliseum to temporarily play at the Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for three years.

Schedule
On July 13, 2023, Major League Baseball released its 2024 schedule. There are 162 games scheduled for all teams. As has been the case since 2023, each team will play 13 games against their division rivals, totaling 52 games. Each team will play six games against six opponents and seven games against four opponents in the same league for a total of 64 games. Each team will also play 46 interleague games, including a four-game home-and-home series against their designated interleague rival.

As part of the MLB World Tour, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres opened the season at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 20–21, in the first-ever MLB regular season games played in South Korea. Opening Day in North America occurred on March 28, with all but four clubs in action with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies opening on March 29 because of a postponement due to inclement weather. Other MLB World Tour series include the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City on April 27–28, the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies at London Stadium in London on June 8–9, and the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays in spring training at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo on March 9–10.

The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are scheduled to play at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, in a game honoring the Negro leagues and hall of fame outfielder Willie Mays. The 94th All-Star Game is planned for July 16, hosted by the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The MLB Little League Classic at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania is scheduled for August 18 with the New York Yankees taking on the Detroit Tigers.

Rule changes
On December 21, 2023, MLB announced a set of rule changes that will take effect in 2024.
 * Following a dead ball, the pitch clock will restart as soon as the pitcher receives a new ball from the umpire (previously the clock restarted once the pitcher entered the circle around the pitcher's mound).
 * When runners are on base, the pitch clock's starting time will decrease from 20 seconds to 18 seconds.
 * Visits to the mound will be reduced from five to four per game. Teams will receive an extra mound visit in the ninth inning if they have used four prior to that point (or in the case of a called game the final inning by the losing team).
 * The runner's lane will be widened to the cut of the infield grass in fair territory. The distance between the foul line and the infield grass will be between 18 and 24 inches in all ballparks, with a grace period for non-compliant parks to make modifications. The runner's actions are deemed legal if running in fair territory provided both feet are on or touching the dirt.
 * A pitcher who warms up at the start of an inning must face at least one batter; he may not be replaced during or after warmups unless injured.

Spring training
Spring training for the 2024 season began in late February and lasted through March. Teams began workouts and practice for spring training beginning in mid-February. Pitchers and catchers reported first, followed by position players a few days later.

Prior to the start of the regular season, each team played between 27 and 34 spring training games (with the exception of the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, who played a shortened spring training of 21 and 22 games respectively, due to their regular season games in Seoul), beginning on February 22. There were several times during spring training where a team had two different squads playing different teams simultaneously. In addition to spring training games, teams occasionally played exhibition games with non-MLB teams, such as Minor League Baseball teams, independent teams, or college teams. These exhibition games are not counted in spring training standings. Spring training ended on March 26, two days before the Opening Day.

During spring training in 2024, MLB launched a new initiative called MLB Spring Breakout. Each organization puts together a team of their best prospects to compete against another organization's prospects from March 14 to March 17.

League leaders (v.1/current format)
(Updated through June 17)

League leaders (v.2/combined current format; not separate hitting and pitching boxes)
(Updated through May 21)

League leaders (v.3/single table)
(Updated through June 17)

League leaders (v.4/single table with section headers)
(Updated through June 17)

Batters

 * Tyler O'Neill (BOS):
 * Hit a home run on Opening Day for the fifth consecutive season, setting a new Major League record. He broke the record that he held with Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, and Todd Hundley.


 * Elly De La Cruz (CIN):
 * Became the first player with a 450-foot-plus homer and an inside-the-park HR in the same game under the Statcast era (2015) on April 8 against the Milwaukee Brewers.
 * With his 30th stolen base on May 16, De La Cruz became the sixth player in Major League history to reach 30 stolen bases in his team's first 44 games.


 * Shohei Ohtani (LAD):
 * Hit his 176th career home run against the New York Mets on April 21, setting a new Major League record for most home runs by a Japanese-born player. He broke the record that was held by Hideki Matsui.


 * Pete Alonso (NYM):
 * Hit his 200th career home run against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 27 in his 710th career game, the fourth fastest player in Major League history to reach that milestone.


 * Gunnar Henderson (BAL):
 * Became the youngest player in Major League history to hit 10 home runs before May 1 of a season (22 years, 305 days old) on April 29 against the New York Yankees.


 * Juan Soto (NYY):
 * Drew his 669th career walk on May 14 against the Minnesota Twins, setting a new Major League record for most walks drawn by a batter before they celebrated their 26th birthday (25 years, 202 days old). He broke the record that was held by Mickey Mantle.

No-hitters

 * Ronel Blanco (HOU):
 * Threw the first no-hitter of the season, his career, and the 17th in team history in a 10–0 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 1. Blanco threw 105 pitches with 73 for strikes. He walked two and struck out seven batters.

Other pitching accomplishments

 * Ronel Blanco (HOU):
 * Blanco faced 44 batters in a row before giving up his first hit, a single by Adolis García in the sixth inning on April 7 against the Texas Rangers. It is the most by a pitcher to begin a season in at least the expansion era (since 1961).


 * Shōta Imanaga (CHC):
 * After his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 18, Imanaga's ERA stood at 0.84 on the season. This set a Major League record for the lowest ERA through his first nine career starts since ERA became an official statistic in 1913.  The old record was set in 1981 by Fernando Valenzuela with an ERA of 0.91.


 * Jeremiah Estrada (SD):
 * Set the Major League record for most consecutive strike outs (since 1961), when he struck out his 12th straight batter on May 28 against the Miami Marlins. He broke the record that was set by José Alvarado.  He then struck out his 13th straight batter to complete the inning.

Miscellaneous

 * Arizona Diamondbacks:
 * The Diamondbacks set a Major League record for most runs scored in an inning on Opening Day, by scoring 14 runs in the third inning against the Colorado Rockies.


 * Colorado Rockies:
 * The Rockies set a Major League record for a team with the most consecutive games to start a season trailing, with 30 games in a row on May 1 against the Miami Marlins.

Wholesale changes

 * Nike's new Vapor Premier template started being used across all Major League uniforms in 2024, replacing the previous Majestic Athletic FlexBase template that Nike inherited upon taking over MLB's uniform contract in 2020. The new template was first used in the uniforms worn during the 2023 All-Star Game. The Nike Vapor Premier uniforms, manufactured by Fanatics, have received criticism from players and fans for its subpar quality compared to previous uniforms. During spring training, the Royals opted out of using the Vapor Premier template, instead wearing unifoms that feature the larger player name and number font used by the older uniforms. In late April 2024, the MLB Players Association sent a memo to players stating that the uniforms would be overhauled, at the latest by the start of the 2025 season, hoping to rectify many of the complaints aimed at Nike's Vapor Premier template. The MLBPA "placed the blame on Nike" and the Vapor Premier uniform, claiming "Nike was innovating something that didn't need to be innovated", while "absolv[ing] Fanatics".
 * The Diamondbacks unveiled a new uniform set, adding teal as a full-time accent color. Cream returned as the base color on the home uniforms for the first time since 2006, as is the alternate "D-snake" logo. Sand was removed entirely from the uniforms, except for the "City Connect" uniform.
 * Due to Nike's 4+1 Rule, the Phillies dropped their red alternate uniform in favor a City Connect uniform to be unveiled during the 2024 season. It had been used in the regular season for home games in 2016 and 2017, and again from 2021 to 2023 for road games.
 * The Mets removed the white outline on the text and logo on their black alternate jerseys and caps.
 * The Yankees made slight changes to their road uniform by removing the white outline on the lettering and numbering as well as the stripe pattern on their sleeves. It was the first time since 1972 that the team had changed their road uniforms.
 * The Nationals added a pullover alternate uniform and changed their road uniforms. It was the first time since the Cincinnati Reds uniforms from 1972–1992 to have a pullover jersey on a regular basis. The team also retired their red alternate uniform with a white curly "W". The team also removed the front numbers to their home and alternate navy jerseys.
 * The Marlins modified their black alternate uniforms by featuring white accents to the team's name on the front and player's name and number on the back. The team also introduced and modified their teal alternate uniforms by featuring the team's name as well.
 * The Braves added a red-lining to their alternate navy jerseys.

Uniform advertisements
This is the second year where teams added advertisement patches to their uniforms. The following teams have announced their uniform advertisements.
 * Baltimore Orioles: T. Rowe Price
 * Kansas City Royals: QuikTrip
 * Los Angeles Dodgers: Guggenheim Baseball Management
 * San Francisco Giants: Chevrolet (2024 season only)
 * Texas Rangers: Energy Transfer Partners

City Connect
Eight additional teams will unveil new City Connect uniforms and wear them for the first time during the season. Additionally, the Los Angeles Dodgers will unveil a new City Connect this year, becoming the first team to change their City Connect uniform since the program's inception.
 * The Phillies' City Connect uniform features blue and yellow colors across the uniform, inspired by the Flag of Philadelphia. The jersey features Philadelphia's common abbreviation "PHILLY" across the chest in white lettering. The cap features the Liberty Bell, with the skyline of Philadelphia inside and two stars on each side.
 * The Mets' City Connect uniform features several elements that are related to New York City. The jersey features purple pinstripes and New York's abbreviation "NYC" across the chest. The cap features the Mets' "NY" interlocked logo along with the Queensboro Bridge, which connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. The purple color was inspired by the 7 subway line that runs to Citi Field.
 * The Rays' City Connect uniform features the city name outlined in neon across the chest, similar to the Devil Rays road jersey from 1998 to 2000. The cap features the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which crosses into St. Petersburg along with the sting-ray, also called "skyray". Another logo features three palm trees and a pelican, both of which have several ties to the area, symbolizing the "Bro Bowl" skate park and the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Florida State Negro League in the 1940s and 50's.
 * The Tigers' City Connect uniform features elements that pay tribute to the automotive industry in Detroit. The jersey features blue and black gradient coloring and Detroit's nickname "Motor City" across the chest in white lettering. The cap is also black and features the city name across and in white lettering.
 * The Guardians' City Connect uniform features elements that pay tribute to the Guardians of Traffic. The jersey features Cleveland's abbreviation "CLE" in white art-deco lettering inside of a dark blue base. It also features a red and white stripe pattern around the uniform which pays tribute to Cleveland's past uniforms in the 1990s. The cap features a dark blue diamond shape "C" along with the white and dark blue colors.
 * The Cardinals' City Connect uniform features the nickname of St. Louis, "The Lou" across the chest of the jersey and featuring the "birds on the bat" logo. The cap is red and features the abbreviation in St. Louis "STL" across and in white lettering. The font for the abbreviation is from their 1920 uniforms.
 * The Blue Jays' City Connect uniforms features several elements that are inspired by Toronto's nightlife. The jersey features the city name and the skyline of Toronto in red and blue colors. The cap features a "split T" logo in red and blue and a maple leaf, which is inspired from the Flag of Toronto.
 * The Twins' City connect uniforms features several elements that are inspired by the 10,000 Lakes that are located in Minnesota. The Jersey has a look of a rippling effect, with the abbreviation MN on the right of the Jersey, with the North Star between the two letters on top. The Jersey is mainly a light blue/blue mix with yellow outlines on the sleeves and a yellow belt. The hat has the outline of the state of Minnesota with a lake on the bottom of the state and the northern lights on the top, and a North Star where the Twins are located, which is in the Twin Cities area (Minneapolis). On the side of the hat is a wordmark which reads 10,000 Lakes. On the bottom of the hat bill is the outline of Lake Minnetonka.

Other uniforms

 * The Rangers wore gold-trimmed home uniforms on March 28 and March 30 to commemorate their 2023 World Series championship.
 * All players, managers, and umpires wore #42 on April 15, the 77th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the majors.
 * Starting with this season, all players, managers, and umpires wore #4 on June 2 to honor Lou Gehrig day.

Venues
The Oakland Athletics lease with the Oakland Coliseum expires after the end of the season. On June 15, 2023, the team officially announced they would begin the relocation process to Las Vegas. The move was approved by the other MLB owners on November 16. The Athletics would move into a new 33,000-seat fixed roof ballpark by the 2028 season. On April 4, 2024, the Athletics announced they would play at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California for the next three seasons with an option for 2028 before moving to Las Vegas, making this their final season in Oakland.

National
This is the third year of the existing seven-year deals with ESPN, Fox, TBS, Apple TV+, and MLB Network.

Linear television

 * Fox continues to air their Baseball Night in America and Fox Saturday Baseball slate of exclusive games on Saturday and select Thursday nights. The network will also air the 2024 MLB All-Star Game and the game at Rickwood Field, all of those are exclusive games. FS1 also broadcasts non-exclusive games. Following his retirement, Adam Wainwright joined Fox as a full-time color commentator. He previously had done color commentary for Fox during select playoff games.
 * TBS continues to broadcast Tuesday Night Baseball. Most games are blacked out in the home markets of the teams playing, however, TBS is allowed to co-exist once with a teams' local broadcast.
 * ESPN continues to broadcast Sunday Night Baseball, with the option to show alternate broadcasts. ESPN also exclusively air five other non-Sunday night games, including a primetime game on opening night and one game from the MLB London Series. ESPN also aired both games from the MLB Seoul Series and one game from the MLB Mexico City Series, though those games are blacked out in local markets. The network also has the rights to the Home Run Derby. Select games may air on ABC and ESPN2.
 * MLB Network continues to broadcast games daily. While most games are simulcasts of the home teams' regional sports network broadcasts, select games are produced by the network under its MLB Network Showcase banner. All games are blacked out in the home markets of the teams playing.

Streaming

 * This is the first regular season that the streaming service Max will simulcast TBS' games on its Bleacher Report Sports Add-on tier.
 * Apple TV+ continues to hold the rights to Friday Night Baseball. Apple had option to opt out of the Friday Night Baseball deal prior to this season, however on March 7 it announced that it would not opt out therefore it would not be able to exit the agreement until it expires in the 2028 season. This would also be the second year of DirecTV's sub-licensing agreement to show these games to commercial establishments.
 * The Roku Channel replaced Peacock as the home for MLB Sunday Leadoff. Games are also available to MLB.tv customers blackout-free.
 * ESPN+ continues to hold the rights to stream one game a day. All games are blacked out in local markets.

Postseason
During the postseason, the ESPN networks, including ABC (with Spanish–language simulcasts on ESPN Deportes) will air all four Wild Card Series. TBS (with Spanish-language simulcasts on MLB Network) will then broadcast the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series, and Fox Sports (Fox and FS1, with Spanish-language simulcasts on Fox Deportes) will broadcast the National League Division Series, the National League Championship Series, and the World Series.

Local

 * On October 31, 2023, the Minnesota Twins announced that television play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer would leave the booth to join the team's front office as its special assistant. On December 1, the Twins replaced Bremer with Cory Provus, and Kris Atteberry took Provus' place as the radio play-by-play announcer.
 * On November 9, Jason Benetti left the Chicago White Sox to join the Detroit Tigers as its lead television play-by-play announcer. Benetti replaced Matt Shepard whose contract was not renewed by Bally Sports Detroit. Dan Dickerson, the team's lead radio play-by-play announcer, will call games when Benetti has assignments with Fox Sports.
 * On December 18, C. J. Nitkowski left the Texas Rangers to join the Atlanta Braves as its primary television analyst. Jeff Francoeur, who served as the Braves' primary analyst the previous season, will continue to make occasional appearances.
 * On January 25, 2024, the Chicago White Sox announced John Schriffen as their lead television play-by-play announcer, replacing Jason Benetti who departed to join the Detroit Tigers as their lead play-by-play television announcer.
 * On February 13, the Oakland Athletics announced Jenny Cavnar as their lead television play-by-play announcer. She will be the first woman to be the primary play-by-play voice of an MLB team. On February 20, the Athletics also hired Chris Caray, son of St. Louis Cardinals announcer Chip Caray, to serve as Cavnar's backup.
 * On February 13, the Texas Rangers' broadcast team for 2024 was announced with Mike Bacsik, Dave Valle and David Murphy splitting analyst duties and Jared Sandler taking over as the backup TV play-by-play announcer behind Dave Raymond. The trio of Bacsik, Valle and Murphy replaced C. J. Nitkowski who joined the Braves broadcast team.

AT&T SportsNet closure
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) wound down its AT&T SportsNet regional sports network (RSN) business prior to the start of the 2024 season. The move affected the Colorado Rockies on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the Houston Astros on AT&T SportsNet Southwest, and the Pittsburgh Pirates on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.

The Astros and the NBA's Houston Rockets took over AT&T SportsNet Southwest and rebranded it to the Space City Home Network after the end of the Astros' regular season on October 3, 2023. Fenway Sports Group, owners of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Red Sox, took over AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, rebranding it to just SportsNet Pittsburgh on October 2, 2023. On December 13, 2023, the Pirates announced they would jointly own SportsNet Pittsburgh beginning on January 1, 2024. NESN, through Fenway Sports Group, will operate the network. In February, MLB Local Media took over production of Rockies games.

WBD had owned a 29% share of Root Sports Northwest, the Mariners' RSN, through the end of the 2023 season, and had produced Mariners telecasts. The Mariners took full control of the network on January 1, 2024.

Diamond Sports bankruptcy
This would be the second season affected by the February 2023 bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group, owners of the Bally Sports regional sports networks. Diamond Sports Group may cut ties with additional teams it previously had deals with. The rights of those teams that Major League Baseball took over from Diamond midway through the 2023 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres, could also change in 2024. Diamond's deal with the Minnesota Twins also expired before the season.

On February 2, 2024, Diamond Sports announced agreements with the Rangers, Guardians and Twins that will result in a decreased rights fee and will end their contracts with Diamond after the 2024 season.

Local

 * On April 15, 2024, New York Yankees radio announcer John Sterling announced his retirement effective immediately. Sterling had been the radio voice of the Yankees since 1989 and also called games for the Atlanta Braves from 1982 to 1987. The Yankees are expected to replace Sterling with Justin Shackil and Emmanuel Berbari on radio play-by-play.

Retirements
The following players and coaches retired during the 2024 season and before the start of the 2025 campaign:
 * Shin-Soo Choo – December 14, 2023 (announced); will retire at the end of the season
 * Tim Lopes – March 28, 2024
 * William Woods – April 2
 * Stephen Strasburg – April 6
 * Beau Taylor – April 14
 * Khris Davis – May 12
 * Dylan Bundy – May 13

Retired numbers

 * Dwight Gooden had his No. 16 retired by the New York Mets on April 14. This was the eighth number retired by the team.
 * Darryl Strawberry had his No. 18 retired by the New York Mets on June 1. This was the ninth number retired by the team.
 * Jim Leyland will have his No. 10 retired by the Detroit Tigers on August 3. This will be the tenth number retired by the team.