Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

It seems as though at least one of Major League Baseball’s rule changes is already having the desired impact.

We’re a day into the 2023 MLB season and Opening Day 2023 was both a success for the Mets, and for the game of baseball overall. There was action galore and a lot of that action was to be found on the base paths.

While the introduction of the pitch clock attracted the most attention throughout spring training, increasing the size of the bases was done to try to infuse the game with a deluge of action. After all, Major League Baseball had become all about feast and famine with home runs and strikeouts, with little else happing in between. By increasing the size of the bases from 15 inches to 18 inches and reducing the distance between first and second and second and third, the league hoped this would encourage and lead to more stolen bases.

It has already worked.

And, it should also be noted that the change to the pickoff rule is also going to have a positive influence on more stolen bases too. With pitchers now limited to just two disengagements with a third attempt resulting in a charged balk, that will encourage hitters to steal more often as was the case in the minors, which saw a rapid rise in stolen bases in the wake of the new pickoff rule being implemented.

Aside from looking like giant pizza boxes, the bigger bases had exactly the desired effect on Opening Day alone. As the below Tweet illustrates, there was a dramatic increase in stolen bases and, perhaps more importantly, the success rate.

We saw 16 more stolen bases on Opening Day 2023 than we did on Opening Day in 2022, two fewer were caught stealing and the success rate not only increased, but it skyrocketed. The fact that we witnessed such a huge positive difference in such a small sample size only bodes well for the future.

It was also the most bases stolen on an Opening Day since 1907. That stat alone perhaps best illustrates the rapid success of the bigger bases.

MLB wanted more action on the base paths in order to make the game a more fun and entertaining product full of action and, if Opening Day is anything to go by, the larger bases will help to accomplish that goal and then some. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility to suggest that we could see a return to the days when Jacoby Ellsbury stole 70 bases in 2009, and former Met Jose Reyes stole 78 bases in 2007.

More stolen bases and more action on the base paths, just like the glory days of old, will only be good for the game.

To hammer home the point a little bit more emphatically, the Baltimore Orioles alone had five stolen bases on Opening Day, highlighting that teams full of speed and athleticism are already taking full advantage. Not only that, but it took over three full days of games in 2022 before there were even over 17 stolen bases.

The difference already is staggering.

The new change also benefited the Mets. One of the biggest and most interesting trends to emerge from their Opening Day win over the Marlins on Thursday was their aggressiveness in running the bases. They hit two sacrifice flies after Daniel Vogelbach and then Brandon Nimmo went from first-to-third. That is a sight we should get used to seeing a lot in 2023.

Plus, Starling Marte opened his season with a stolen base and both he and Francisco Lindor, given the blistering speed they both possess, should absolutely torment opposing lineups and feast on the bountiful opportunities the bigger base paths will present to them when it comes to stealing bases.

Overall, something needed to be done to inject more action into the game of baseball and, while increasing the size of the bases sounds simple on the surface, we’ve needed just one day to see how big of a difference it has made already. And, if Opening Day is anything to go by, the base paths are going to provide a lot of entertainment throughout 2023. And that’s what the game needs.