{"id":601599,"date":"2026-03-02T13:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/601599\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T13:42:07","slug":"everything-to-know-about-mlbs-pitch-tipping-craze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/601599\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything to know about MLB’s pitch-tipping craze"},"content":{"rendered":"

A decade ago, during the 2015 postseason, the Kansas City Royals<\/a> were marching toward a championship when one of their advance scouts noticed a pitcher\u2019s tip from an upcoming playoff opponent. He couldn\u2019t get that information to Royals hitters fast enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cA pitcher was using a black glove and our advance scout picked up light reflecting off that glove,\u201d Royals general manager J.J. Picollo recalled recently. \u201cThe deal was this: If you see the light reflecting off the glove, it\u2019s his breaking ball. If you don\u2019t see any light, it\u2019s his fastball. Because it\u2019s how he turned his glove at the right angle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe scored a bunch of runs because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the years since, pitch tipping has become even more prominent in the game. It often seemed to be the story of the 2025 MLB playoffs, coming up in series between the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> and Cincinnati Reds<\/a>, New York Yankees<\/a> and Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>, and the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The issue came to a head in the World Series when Blue Jays and Dodgers base coaches were asked to stop wandering so far out of the box — perhaps to gain better viewing angles on the pitcher\u2019s hands and gloves while looking to help their hitters in any way possible.<\/p>\n

That warning in the 2025 World Series carried over to this season as MLB is enforcing a new rule requiring the base coaches to stay in their box before the pitch is thrown. It\u2019s a good indication of how much time and energy teams are devoting to this issue, combining their staffing with advanced technology in an attempt to pick up the slightest patterns — from their opponents and own pitchers alike..<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of paranoia about what the base coaches are doing,\u201d Athletics<\/a> GM David Forst said. \u201cThis is one of the instances where reality is perception.\u201d<\/p>\n

What front offices care about even more is making sure their own pitchers don\u2019t tip. Tips can come in so many forms, with many involving the position of a pitcher\u2019s glove and what he\u2019s doing with his fingers. But there are countless ways to tip a pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy, you can tell by his mouth, whether it was open or closed,\u201d Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. \u201cOpen was one kind of pitch. Closed was another. Sometimes it\u2019s pretty obvious. Everyone can see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN set out to find out what teams are saying about pitch tipping — and how big a deal it is in this era of baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big part of the game,\u201d Giants GM Zack Minasian said. \u201cIt\u2019s not illegal. If you can see the grip, it\u2019s fair game. It\u2019s not policed like it was 20 years ago. Back then, you might get one high and tight to send a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much does pitch tipping matter?<\/p>\n

Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer: \u201cWe had a pitcher last year whose foot was straight when he was going to the plate and had it turned just that much when he was going to first base. So they could just run whenever they wanted. It\u2019s frustrating. We can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angels GM Perry Minasian: \u201cI\u2019ve seen teams have pitches and not score any runs. It\u2019s still hard to hit. In Texas, we felt like we had Randy Johnson\u2019s pitches, and we were all excited — then we look up and there\u2019s a lot of zeros on the scoreboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young: \u201cA former teammate told me I was tipping, but I threw seven shutout [innings] that night. … I got lucky that day, though I can\u2019t remember how I was tipping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry Minasian: \u201cAll 30 of us are worried about all those things. You don\u2019t want to give any opponent an advantage. The margins are so slim, the smallest advantage can tip the scales.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your favorite anecdotes about pitch tipping?<\/p>\n

Reds manager Terry Francona: \u201cI wasn\u2019t very good at it, but I knew when they were throwing over to first. I can\u2019t tell you why. … There is so much video now. We want to make it as hard as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

White Sox pitcher Sean Newcomb<\/a>: \u201cMine was how fast I was chewing gum. I\u2019d chew aggressively on a fastball then stop on breaking balls. Never knew it was an issue until a teammate told me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padres manager Craig Stammen: \u201cThe Dodgers were always on top of that stuff. When they had a runner on second base, I spiked my curveball. I couldn\u2019t hide my glove any better. So every pitch I had, I would try to spike it just to throw them off the scent a little bit. … We are going to spend time on it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zack Minasian: \u201cWhen I was bat boy, a player would give me a tip to give to the first-base coach to tell the baserunner who then would relay it to the hitter. I was part of the game. That might have happened a couple times. I think I can tell that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giants manager Tony Vitello: \u201cIt was incredibly prevalent in college. SEC is big money. You start trickling down, some teams don\u2019t have the manpower or the video power to dive into as much. The top teams are doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys [in MLB] let runners advance so they\u2019re not on second base. When the game was on in the locker room in college and we saw that, we thought that was pretty wild. That wasn\u2019t happening in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much of your day is spent on pitch tipping — either preventing your own pitchers\u2019 or finding your opponents\u2019?<\/p>\n

Young: \u201cWe have a review process independent of outcome. Oftentimes they think they were tipping and we go look and it\u2019s like, \u2018No, you were throwing it down the middle.\u2019 It\u2019s a big part of modern-day baseball. It\u2019s as much about prevention than finding out the other team\u2019s tips.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forst: \u201cIt\u2019s only natural, if the results are bad, you\u2019ll dive more into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen: \u201cWe spend a lot of time on the defensive pitch tipping with our pitchers. It\u2019s a part of almost all our internal conversations, in one-on-ones with our pitchers. We have staff watching all the time. We\u2019re not sure after a bad game how much is pitch tipping after a bad outing. We try to cross-check that with the other teams sometimes because making changes off of things that aren\u2019t real can also lead you down a bad road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcomb: \u201cIt\u2019s something you bake into your routine. What you do with your glove. What you do with your body. Pitch grips. It starts with playing catch every day so you are worrying about it on start day.<\/p>\n

Picollo: \u201cIt\u2019s a relentless pursuit. Some teams are better than others at it. We beefed up our efforts after 2023. We have multiple people on our staff, behind the scenes, info from our hitters. It\u2019s an advantage. We can\u2019t turn a blind eye to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaeffer: \u201cIt needs to be a big part. In the past, it hasn\u2019t been a huge part. This was a high focus in the offseason, bringing people in for this. All it takes is for one team to have a tip on one reliever in one inning and that\u2019s the game. If our guys have a tip, we need to clean it up. It\u2019s going to be a huge focus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decade ago, during the 2015 postseason, the Kansas City Royals were marching toward a championship when one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,68613,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-601599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-cincinnatireds","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-mlb-sports-baseball-league-mlb","14":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116159876367298492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}