NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball announced three monumental rules changes for the 2023 season, each designed to make the game faster and more entertaining.

Next season will see the introduction of a pitch timer, bigger bases and defensive shift restrictions, all of which should help improve the aspects of the game that many fans have been clamoring for.

“Our guiding star in thinking about changes to the game has always been our fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said Friday at a press conference to announce the rule changes.

Mariners chairman and managing partner John Stanton, who serves as chairman of the committee, said the group was guided by two fundamental principles: “First, we wanted to respond to the desires of our fans to improve the game. Second, we wanted to be inclusive and collaborative.”

The joint Competition Committee, which was created as part of this year’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, included owners, players and umpires.

The new rules, which Manfred noted have been tested in approximately 8,000 Minor League games, should help quicken the pace of play, increase the action on the field and reduce injuries. And while these changes can certainly be described as monumental, Stanton noted that the committee had another objective, as well: “To preserve the integrity of the game.”

The pitch timer will require pitchers to begin their motion prior to the expiration of the clock, which will be 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 seconds with at least one runner on base. Pitchers will be permitted to disengage from the rubber twice per plate appearance without penalty, resetting the clock each time. Subsequent disengagements will result in a balk unless an out is recorded on a runner.

Hitters will be required to be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher with at least eight seconds remaining on the clock. Hitters will also receive one timeout per plate appearance.

“I like it, I like it,” Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who sits on the MLBPA’s executive subcommittee, told reporters. “I don’t step out of the box when it comes to the pitch clock. I don’t pitch. I think it’s going to be good, and bigger bases is probably for safety reasons, and the shift is going to hopefully create a little bit more offense, so we’ll see.”

Compared to 2021, the pitch timer has reduced the average nine-inning game in the Minor Leagues by 26 minutes, from three hours and four minutes last season to two hours and 38 minutes in 2022. Major League games this season are averaging a run time of three hours and seven minutes.

“One very encouraging thing we saw in the testing is players were able to adjust extraordinarily quickly to playing with the pitch timer,” said Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive VP of baseball operations. “As players got adjusted, the violations disappeared. We're now at the point where for a given team, you're likely to go about four games between violations of the pitch timer.”

MLB consultant Theo Epstein, the executive who guided both the Red Sox and Cubs to their historic World Series titles, believes the game has evolved “in a way that nobody would have chosen if we were sitting down 25 years ago to chart a path towards the best version of baseball,” though he believes the new changes should help alleviate some of those issues.

“No one would have asked for the league to hit closer to .240 than to .265,” Epstein said. “Nobody would have asked for a league strikeout rate higher than Bob Gibson's career strikeout rate. Nobody would have asked for fans to have to wait more than four minutes for balls to be put into play. Nobody would have asked for generational lows in stolen bases, triples and doubles -- fans’ favorite plays.

“So in many ways, the effort to move closer to the best version of baseball is also an effort to restore the game to previous eras and to more traditional norms that featured more contact, more action, faster pace and greater entertainment value.”

The process to make rule changes began with a program that included fan outreach, surveys, polls, interviews and focus groups, with the same feedback coming in time and time again.

“Fans were all clear in their desire for faster pace, more athleticism, less dead time, more balls in play,” Epstein said. “This game is about the players and it is for the fans. We hope that these rule changes underscore that, and we're confident that they help move us closer to the very best version of baseball.”

The defensive shift restrictions will require teams to position two infielders on each side of second base when the pitch is released. The infielders must also have both feet within the outer boundary of the infield, and teams will not be permitted to have infielders switch sides unless there is a substitution.

“I think fans will cherish the moments,” Epstein said, “absent extreme defensive shifts when games are decided not by whether their team’s infield is positioned by the perfect algorithm, but by whether their second baseman can range to make an athletic diving play with everything on the line.”

Asked about the new positioning rules, Lindor seemed excited by the idea.

“I’m all for being in a position where I can be athletic and move a little bit more and try to make more defensive plays,” Lindor said. “I think this is going to put us in a better position to make good plays and crazy plays.”

Raul Ibanez, MLB’s senior VP of on-field operations, thought back to his own career and the implications that the new defensive positioning rules might have had on him.

“As a left-handed hitter, there's only so many times that you want to hit a 105 mph line drive 200 feet away and have two right fielders standing out there,” Ibanez said. “Or in the case of some of us that weren’t that fleet of foot, you hit a one-hopper to shallow right field and you get thrown out by a half step.”

The final rule change will see an increase in base size from the standard 15-inch square to an 18-inch square, which should decrease base-related injuries while also allowing teams to become more aggressive on the basepaths.

“We have the greatest players -- the most athletic, the biggest, the fastest, the strongest in the history of baseball,” Ibanez said. “Just to encourage that athleticism to be displayed on the field is something that not only our fans want, but all of us within the industry want as well because we want to see these guys play baseball the way it's supposed to be played.”

The Competition Committee will continue to meet throughout the year, Sword said, and may discuss additional, smaller changes for 2023.

MLB also announced Friday that it has reached a multi-year agreement to extend its relationship with PitchCom, the technology that allows pitchers to receive signs electronically from the catcher. The introduction of PitchCom earlier this year was initially met with some skepticism by some, but its success has earned it rave reviews around the league.

Manfred believes that the same will be the case with the new rule changes.

“I think if you look back at the changes that have taken place in the game in the last few years, there's always a period at the beginning where because all of us love the game so much, there's a reluctance to see change,” Manfred said. “It's just a reflection of people's attachment to the game. Then as you watch the change in operation, I think there is more acceptance, and, in a lot of cases, people who were initially opposed actually become supporters of the change.”