It was the smallest of infractions, but Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe was still alerted about it.
Plouffe received a letter from Major League Baseball via the Twins notifying him of his wrongdoing. He also was shown a video of what he did wrong, something that on May 1 will result in money being taken from him.
Plouffe's crime? Stepping out of the batter's box ever so briefly between pitches.
Doing so is now a no-no in many cases as MLB has tried to speed up the pace of play. If a batter does not swing at a pitch, he's not allowed to step out of the box. If he fouls a pitch off, then he can step out to regroup. But in the instance of taking a ball or a strike, the batter has to keep one foot in the batter's box.
That's where Plouffe erred. He's not alone, as many of his Twins teammates have also received warnings.
"You're just barely out of the box. Some guys are walking around. They should be fined," Plouffe said. "I don't know what the fine's going to be but it's definitely coming. I think after May 1 you get a warning and if you do it again in a series you'll get fined. It's coming."
The rule for batters is just one of the pace of play changes MLB instituted for the 2015 season after easing them in during spring training. Also new this year is the countdown clock that winds down in between innings, alerting pitchers as to when they need to be ready while also letting hitters know when they should be in the batter's box.
The clock -- most parks have one behind home plate and one somewhere in center field -- counts down from 2:25 for locally televised games and 2:45 for national games. With 40 seconds left, the public address announcer begins the routine of introducing the first batter of the inning. The pitcher gets his final warmup throw with 30 seconds left on the clock. Then, the batter must enter the box with anywhere between 20 and five seconds remaining.
The hope of the countdown clock is to eliminate unnecessary time between innings. Every little bit that can be tightened up can add up in the end of a nine-inning game.
"I think it's given me a few more warmups, if anything. You know exactly how much time you have," said Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson. "I don't mind it. I think it just keeps everybody a little bit more honest with the time in between innings. Unless it's a number on a board, we can't tell when the break comes back. So it's good to know that, OK, at the 20-second mark that's when the TV's back on and everybody needs to be ready to go. You adjust to the fact that that's when you need to be ready."
But have these changes helped? The Twins seem to think so. Already in their first 14 games, Minnesota has had three games take 2:33 or shorter. Only four of the 14 games have topped the three-hour mark, and one of those was an 11-inning game against Cleveland.
By comparison, eight of the Twins' first 14 games last year were longer than three hours. The quickest was two hours, 35 minutes.
It's not just the Twins who are experiencing quicker games. According to the USA Today, the first 35 games of the MLB season averaged two hours, 52 minutes -- 10 minutes per game faster than last year's average of 3:02.
"The numbers are coming back with positive return," said Twins manager Paul Molitor. "Our games have been shorter. I don't pay a lot of attention during the game. Every once in a while you'll see guys slow the game down and you know he's going to be somebody that's going to be getting letters or reprimanded. But for the most part I think our guys have been pretty good."
Twins general manager Terry Ryan said his team was one of the least-penalized teams in spring training with regards to pace of play violations. Some pitchers still take longer than others on the mound once the at-bat starts; Trevor May has had the fastest pace on the Twins this year (17.7 seconds between pitches), while Kyle Gibson (23.9) and Mike Pelfrey (23.8) have been among the slowest. But in between innings, Minnesota has passed the test.
As for the hitters, only some have received warnings. Twins first baseman Joe Mauer has yet to have a violation, but outfielder Jordan Schafer got a warning for an infraction that he said was literally two inches outside of the batter's box.
Schafer's wallet wasn't hit this time, but in just over a week, he'd be hit with a fine for the same instance.
"I can understand if you step out and walk around. I can understand that. But if you're just stepping out of the box and you're out a couple inches or a foot, let's be realistic," Schafer said. "At the end of the day, in situations you're going to take your time to make sure you're ready, you're not going to be thinking about, 'Well, if I don't hurry up here I'm going to get fined,' if they want to fine you they want to fine you. I want to make sure that I'm prepared to try to do my job. If I need to step out and get myself gathered, then so be it."
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
